Libelant

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who files a legal complaint alleging that another party has published defamatory material against them in a court of law
2. The party who initiates a libel action by formally accusing someone of publishing damaging false statements in writing
3. Someone who sues in a court for damages after a written defamation has been made against them by another person

Etymology: "Libelant" is a legal term for the person who brings a libel, the plaintiff in certain admiralty and divorce proceedings. It is a straightforward formation: the noun "libel" (from Old French "libelle," from Latin "libellus," "little book" or "pamphlet," a diminutive of "liber," "book") plus the agent suffix "-ant," from Latin "-ans" (genitive "-antis"), which marks someone who performs an action. The suffix became common in English through French, so "libelant" follows the pattern of words like "claimant" or "applicant." The word's first English uses come in legal writing, where "libel" was long used for a written statement of claim filed in court, particularly in ecclesiastical, maritime, and divorce cases. Its older sense of a written, published attack on someone's reputation developed later, though the legal sense is the one that gave rise to "libelant." The agent noun has stayed almost entirely within legal vocabulary, mostly in the United States.

Synonyms: plaintiff, complainant

Antonyms: defendant, respondent