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English
Etymology
16th century, borrowed from Middle French combat, deverbal from Old French combatre, from Vulgar Latin *combattere, from Latin com- (“with”) + battuere (“to beat, strike”).
Pronunciation
Noun
combat (countable and uncountable, plural combats)
- A battle, a fight (often one in which weapons are used).
1907 August, Robert W Chambers, chapter VIII, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:"My tastes," he said, still smiling, "incline me to the garishly sunlit side of this planet." And, to tease her and arouse her to combat: "I prefer a farandole to a nocturne; I'd rather have a painting than an etching; Mr. Whistler bores me with his monochromatic mud; I don't like dull colours, dull sounds, dull intellects; […]."
1950 September 1, Harry S. Truman, 0:56 from the start, in MP72-73 Korea and World Peace: President Truman Reports to the People, Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives Identifier: 595162:In less than eight weeks, five divisions of United States troops have moved into combat, some of them from bases more than 6,000 miles away. More men are on the way. Fighting in difficult country under every kind of hardship, American troops have held back overwhelming numbers of the communist invaders.
2012 March, William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter, “The British Longitude Act Reconsidered”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 87:Conditions were horrendous aboard most British naval vessels at the time. Scurvy and other diseases ran rampant, killing more seamen each year than all other causes combined, including combat.
- a struggle for victory
Derived terms
Translations
a battle; a fight
- Afrikaans: geveg
- Albanian: lufta
- Arabic: قِتَال m (qitāl)
- Hijazi Arabic: قِتال m (gitāl), مُحاربة f (muḥāraba)
- Armenian: մարտ (hy) (mart), կռիվ (hy) (kṙiv)
- Bulgarian: би́тка (bg) f (bítka), сраже́ние (bg) n (sražénie), борба́ (bg) f (borbá)
- Catalan: batalla (ca) f, combat (ca) m
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 戰鬥 / 战斗 (zh) (zhàndòu), 奮鬥 / 奋斗 (zh) (fèndòu)
- Czech: boj (cs) m
- Danish: kamp (da), slag (da), slagsmål (da), træfning (da)
- Dutch: gevecht (nl), kamp (nl), slag (nl), strijd (nl), treffen (nl), veldslag (nl)
- Esperanto: batalo (eo)
- Estonian: lahing (et)
- Faroese: bardagi
- Finnish: taistelu (fi), kamppailu (fi)
- French: combat (fr) m, bataille (fr) f, lutte (fr) f
- Galician: combate (gl) m
- German: Kampf (de) m, Schlacht (de) f, Gefecht (de) n
- Greek: αγώνας (el) m (agónas), πάλη (el) f (páli), μάχη (el) (máchi)
- Ancient: μάχη f (mákhē); (epic) δηϊοτής f (dēïotḗs), ὑσμίνη f (husmínē)
- Hebrew: נפתולים m
- Hindi: संग्राम (hi) (saṅgrām), युद्ध (hi) (yuddh), रण (hi) (raṇ)
- Icelandic: slagsmál
- Ido: kombato (io)
- Italian: battaglia (it)
- Japanese: 戦闘 (ja) (せんとう, sentō)
- Korean: 싸움 (ko) (ssaum), 전투(戰鬪) (ko) (jeontu), 교전(交戰) (ko) (gyojeon)
- Kurdish:
- Central Kurdish: کارزان (ckb) (karzan)
- Northern Kurdish: ceng (ku), şer (ku), şerr (ku)
- Latin: proelium (la), pugna (la)
- Macedonian: би́тка f (bítka), бој m (boj), бо́рба f (bórba)
- Norman: combat m (Jersey)
- Norwegian: slagsmål (no)
- Old English: gūþ f, gefeoht n, camp m
- Ottoman Turkish: صاواش (savaş), ناورد (naverd), پرخاش (perhaş)
- Papiamentu: bataya, bringamentu, pelea, peleya
- Plautdietsch: Schlacht f
- Polish: walka (pl) f
- Portuguese: batalha (pt), combate (pt), luta (pt), peleja (pt), pugna (pt)
- Romanian: luptă (ro), bătaie (ro) f
- Russian: би́тва (ru) f (bítva), бой (ru) m (boj), борьба́ (ru) f (borʹbá), сраже́ние (ru) n (sražénije)
- Sanskrit: रण (sa) m (raṇa)
- Scottish Gaelic: cath, còmhrag f
- Serbo-Croatian: borbena (sh) f
- Sicilian: battagghia (scn) f, lutta (scn) f
- Spanish: batalla (es) f, acción (es) f, combate (es) m
- Sranan Tongo: feti
- Swahili: mashindano (sw)
- Swedish: kamp (sv) c, batalj (sv) c, slag (sv) n, slagsmål (sv) n, strid (sv) c
- Tarifit: amenɣi m
- Telugu: పోటీ పడు (pōṭī paḍu)
- Turkish: muharebe (tr), boğuşmak (tr)
- Welsh: brwydr (cy) f
- West Frisian: fjochtsjen, striid (fy)
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Verb
combat (third-person singular simple present combats, present participle combatting or combating, simple past and past participle combatted or combated)
- (transitive) To fight; to struggle against.
It has proven very difficult to combat drug addiction.
- (intransitive) To fight (with); to struggle for victory (against).
1671, John Milton, Samson Agonistes:To combat with a blind man I disdain.
Translations
to fight; to struggle for victory
References
Anagrams
Catalan
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
Deverbal from combatre. First attested in 1490.[1]
Noun
combat m (plural combats)
- combat
Etymology 2
Verb
combat
- inflection of combatre:
- third-person singular present indicative
- second-person singular imperative
References
Further reading
French
Etymology
From combattre.
Pronunciation
Noun
combat m (plural combats)
- combat (hostile interaction)
- (figuratively) combat (contest; competition)
- (in the plural) battle; military combat
Derived terms
Verb
combat
- third-person singular present indicative of combattre
Further reading
Norman
Etymology
(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
Noun
combat m (plural combats)
- (Jersey) combat
Romanian
Pronunciation
Verb
combat
- inflection of combate:
- first-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
- third-person plural present indicative