mujahidin
UK[ˌmʊdʒɑːhɪˈdiːn]US[mʊˌdʒɑːhɪˈdiːn]
n
muslim guerrilla fighters engaged in a jihad or holy war.
Etymology
the term 'mujahidin' is an arabic loanword adopted into english in the late 20th century, primarily through media coverage of conflicts in afghanistan and the middle east. it is the plural of 'mujahid', which is the active participle of the arabic verb 'jāhada', meaning 'to struggle' or 'to strive'. this verb is the source of the noun 'jihad', often translated as 'holy war'. therefore, 'mujahidin' literally translates to 'those who strive' or 'strugglers', specifically in the context of religiously motivated military effort. the word entered the english lexicon as a fixed term for islamic guerrilla fighters, retaining its arabic morphological structure without segmentation into constituent morphemes recognizable to english speakers.
Analysis
this word is a direct loanword from arabic, treated as a simplex unit in english. it is the plural form of 'mujahid'.
Examples
the mujahidin fought against the soviet occupation of afghanistan throughout the 1980s.
foreign fighters often joined the ranks of the local mujahidin.
the term mujahidin encompasses a diverse range of groups with differing ideologies.