Wordwyrt

defendant

/dɪˈfendənt/dih-FEN-duhnt
/dɪˈfɛndənt/dih-FEN-duhnt

Meaningone who defends

Common meaning: the person accused in a court case

‘down, away, off’ + ‘to strike, ward off’ → defendant

Journey through time

  1. Proto-Indo-European*dhan-‘strike’source
  2. Latin-fendō, -fēnsum‘to strike, ward off’
  3. Old Frenchdefendresource
  4. Middle Englishdefendensource
  5. Englishdefend‘to guard against attack’
  6. Englishformed in English from defenddefendant‘the person accused in a court case’ · today

Sources & notes

Meaning: “Meaning” is the sense that emerges from the word’s roots; “Common meaning” is today’s everyday sense. Both written by us.

Pronunciation

  • UK IPA: converted from the US form by rule (unchecked). Respelling: generated.
  • No UK recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-GB voice.
  • US IPA: CMUdict (BSD-2), converted to IPA by rule. Respelling: generated.
  • No US recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-US voice.

Origin: Formed in English from defend + -ant.

Dictionary: Skeat (1898), DEFEND, p.157 · scan

Roots

Building blocks are an automatic split · open in app