Etymology

prisoner of war

pri·son·er of war

Today it means: A combatant or soldier who is captured by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict. Full definition →

First used early 17th c.French prisonnier de guerre
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. French · calque ofprisonnier de guerre
  2. English todayprisoner of war

Calque of French prisonnier de guerre, prisonier de guerre (obsolete).

First known use, by meaning

  • from early 17th c. A combatant or soldier who is captured by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.