aggressor

Etymology

It is partly borrowed from Middle French agresseur, also aggresseur, and partly directly borrowed from Latin aggressor (“attacker, assailant”),^[2] the agent noun of aggredior (“to approach, attempt, attack”),^[3][4][2] formed from ad- (“to”) and gradior (“to step”), from gradus (“a step”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰredʰ- (“to walk, go”).^[3] The Oxford Dictionary of English and the Shorter Oxford call the source Late Latin,^[5][6] while the OED dates the Latin noun to the 2nd century AD and the French one to 1380.^[2] It belongs with aggression and aggress,^[3][2] and Johnson derived it from aggress.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who attacks another, especially one who makes the first attack: 1585, in T. Washington's translation of Nicolay's Navigations.^[2][4] Etymonline dates it to the 1670s, Dictionary.com to 1670–80 and the Shorter Oxford to the mid 17th century.^[3][8][6]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word stressed who struck first: Johnson (1755) defined it as the one who first begins hostilities, as opposed to the defender.^[7][2] It was applied to persons, nations and animals alike,^[2] and it is used especially of a nation that commits an act of aggression, as in aggressor nations.^[4][6] In military training it also names a force organized to play the enemy in manoeuvres.^[4]

Timeline

• 1585 – a person, nation or animal that attacks another, especially the one who attacks first.^[2][4] Etymonline dates the word to the 1670s.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person, group or country that attacks another without provocation or begins a quarrel or war.^[4][6][2]
2. One that engages in aggression.^[9][4]
3. A military force trained to act as the enemy in manoeuvres, or a member of such a force.^[4]

Related words

• aggression
• aggress
• aggressive
• grade
• progress

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt