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English Dictionary - With Multi-Lingual Search
| March 18, 2009 |
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| Word of the Week--"Belligerent" |
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Definition Belligerent- (adj.) hostile, antagonistic, unfriendly; ready to
wage war.
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| Discussion--Belligerent is derived from a Latin word meaning "to wage war."
It is an adjective used to describe things that are hostile and difficult to
deal with.
Many of us have known belligerent people in our lifetime, and many of us have become belligerent at times ourselves. I know that when I am caught in traffic and I have somewhere important to be, I become belligerent behind the wheel. I become upset with other drivers and will occasionally honk my horn. Indeed, at these times I believe that I truly am ready to "wage war."
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| Etymology--From Latin belligerantem, from belligerare (wage war), from
belliger (waging war), (bellum: war + gerere: to conduct).
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Foreign Translations It is interesting to note that in translation the French and Spanish derivatives are very similar to the English form of the word. The Italian word, Bellicoso, which means warlike, is a slightly different word. However, Dutch and German show no similarities. |
| Dutch: | oorlogszuchtig |
| French: | belligerant(e) |
| German: | kampflustig |
| Italian: | bellicoso |
| Spanish: | beligerante |
