partisan · noun, adjective1
- Italian · derived frompartigiano“defender of a party”
- French · borrowed frompartisan
- English todaypartisan
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. The sense of "guerrilla fighter" is from c. 1690. The adjective in the military sense dates from the early 18th century.
partisan · noun2
- Italian · derived frompartigiana
- Middle French · derived frompartizaine
- French · borrowed frompartizaine
- English todaypartisan
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).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.