''partisan'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''partisan'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260723122144-00-⌔

partisan - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

partisan (plural partisans)

• An adherent to a party or faction.
  • ✤ Synonym: partyman
  • ✤ “Strong partisans of neither party, Indiana farmers failed to act as a block […]”¹
• A fervent, sometimes militant, supporter or proponent of a party, cause, faction, person, or idea.
• A member of a band of detached light, irregular troops acting behind occupying enemy lines in the ways of harassment or sabotage; a guerrilla fighter.
• (now rare) The commander of a body of detached light troops engaged in making forays and harassing an enemy.

Adjective

partisan (comparative more partisan, superlative most partisan)

• Serving as commander or member of a body of detached light troops.
  • ✤ * partisan officer, partisan corps*
• Adherent to a party or faction; especially, having the character of blind, passionate, or unreasonable adherence to a party.
  • ✤ They were blinded by partisan zeal.
  • ✤ Having put partisan interests to one side, Greenwood set about making teamwork a watchword for her chairmanship, while seeking the broadest possible participation in subsequent inquiries.²
• Devoted to or biased in support of a party, group, or cause.
  • ✤ * partisan politics*
  • ✤ England will regard it as a measure of justice for Frank Lampard’s disallowed goal against Germany in Bloemfontein at the 2010 World Cup - but it was also an illustration of how they rode their luck for long periods in front of a predictably partisan home crowd.³
  • ✤ He finds, not “demigods” but “a combative group of exhausted, drunken, broken, petty, partisan, scheming, squabbling, bloviating, sensory-deprived, underoxygenated, fed-up, talked-out, overheated delegates so distraught they threatened violence, secession.⁴

Noun

partisan (plural partisans)

• (historical) A long-handled spear with a triangular, double-edged blade having lateral projections, in some forms also used in boar hunting.
  • ✤ I had as lief have a reed that will do me no service as a partisan I could not heave.⁵
  • ✤ Salisbury and his attendants were also now drawing near, with bills and partisans brandished, and bows already bended.⁶
• (obsolete) A soldier armed with such a weapon.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈpɑː.tɪˌzæn/, /ˌpɑː.tɪˈzæn/
• (General American, Canada) IPA: /ˈpɑɹ.tɪ.zən/, [-ɾɪ],/ˈpɑɹ.tə.zən/, [-ɾə],/-sən/
  • Audio (US): 🔊
• (Australian) IPA: /ˈpɐː.tɪ.zæn/, /-zən/, [-ɾɪ]
  • Audio (Queensland): 🔊
• (New Zealand) IPA: /ˈpɐː.tə.zɛn/, /-zən/, [-ɾə]

Etymology 1

From French partisan, from Italian partigiano (“defender of a party”), from parte (“part”). Doublet of partigiano. Attested in English from the late 15th century in the noun sense of “party adherent”, and in related adjective senses from the 16th century. The “guerrilla fighter” sense influenced by Serbo-Croatian partizan, Russian партиза́н (partizán), from the same source.⁷ The sense of “guerrilla fighter” is from c. 1690. The adjective in the military sense dates from the early 18th century.

Etymology 2

From French partizaine, from Middle French partizaine, partisanne etc., from Italian partigiana, related to Etymology 1 above (apparently because it was seen as a typical weapon of such forces).⁸

Printed 2026-07-23.

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Footnotes

1. 1992, Thomas R. Pegram, Partisans and Progressives: Private Interest and Public Policy in Illinois ‎${}^{[1]}$: ↩

2. 2020 June 3, Lilian Greenwood talks to Paul Stephen, “Rail’s ‘underlying challenges’ remain”, in Rail, page 33: ↩

3. 2012 June 19, Phil McNulty, “England 1-0 Ukraine”, in BBC Sport ‎${}^{[2]}$: ↩

4. 2013, The Ultimate Daily Show and Philosophy: ↩

5. c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene vii]: ↩

6. 1825, Sir Walter Scott, The Talisman: ↩

7. “partisan, n.${}^2$ and adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, June 2005. ↩

8. “partisan, n.${}^1$”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, June 2005. ↩

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