Assailant

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /əˈseɪlənt/

Definitions

1. A person who attacks or attempts to harm another with violence or force
2. An individual who engages in a physical attack or violent confrontation against another person or group
3. A person who initiates an aggressive action or assault to inflict harm on someone else

Etymology: The verb behind "assailant" is a jumper at heart. Its Latin ancestor, "salire", meant "to jump" or "to leap", and when it was compounded with "ad" ("towards"), the result was "assalire", a Late Latin verb meaning to leap at or spring upon someone. The image is physical and immediate: an attack was once pictured as a sudden lunge rather than a sustained assault. The word passed into Old French as "assaillir", and from there the present participle became "assaillant", which meant one who leaps upon another. English took "assail" from the same French verb and added the suffix "-ant", producing the noun for the person doing the leaping. The verb "assail" kept the sense of a forceful, sudden onslaught, so the noun inherited that aggressive energy.

Synonyms: attacker, assault perpetrator

Antonyms: victim, defender