militant
Meaning
using, or willing to use, force or strong pressure to achieve your aims, especially to achieve social or political change
a person who uses, or is willing to use, force or strong pressure to achieve their aims
Structure
Usage
the group has become increasingly militant in its tactics.
she was a militant campaigner for women's rights.
the government faced opposition from militant trade unionists.
Etymology
the word 'militant' has its origins in the latin verb 'militare', meaning 'to serve as a soldier', which itself derives from 'miles', the latin word for soldier. the present participle form 'militans, militant-' (meaning 'serving as a soldier, fighting') was adopted into middle english via old french. the literal sense of 'engaged in warfare' evolved metaphorically to describe anyone aggressively active in a cause, particularly one involving conflict or struggle. this semantic shift from physical combat to figurative or ideological struggle illustrates how the core concept of soldierly engagement was abstracted to characterize vigorous advocacy.
Analysis
milit (from latin 'miles, militis' meaning 'soldier', functional role: root conveying the core concept of soldiering or warfare); ant (from latin present participle suffix '-ant-', functional role: suffix forming adjectives meaning 'engaged in, performing, or causing a specified action', also used to form agent nouns)