complainant

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English compleinaunt, also compleynaunt,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French complaignant,^[4][5][6] the present participle of complaindre (“to lament”), which was also used as a noun.^[6][4][7] Dictionary.com gives the source as Anglo-French compleignant,^[8] and Merriam-Webster as Middle French.^[3] The French verb, the source of complain, is from Vulgar Latin *complangō (“to beat the breast”),^[4][9] from com-, here an intensive prefix, and plangō (“to strike, beat the breast, lament”),^[4][9] from Proto-Indo-European *plāk- (“to strike”).^[9][4] The ending is the suffix -ant.^[6][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who brings formal charges in a court, a plaintiff: 1415, in the records of Norwich.^[2] The adjective, making a complaint, is recorded about 1450, and the legal phrase party compleynaunt, the plaintiff, in the Paston letters in 1461.^[2] The OED's first record is an Act of Henry VII of 1495;^[6] Etymonline dates the word to the early 15th century,^[4] and Dictionary.com to 1375–1425.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The word has been a legal term from the start.^[2][6][4] From 1525, in Lord Berners's translation of Froissart, it was also used of anyone who complains,^[6] a sense that Merriam-Webster now labels archaic.^[3] Johnson (1755) defined it as one who brings a suit or begins a prosecution against another.^[11] Under the procedure of the English Court of Chancery, a suit in equity was begun by filing a bill of complaint, and the plaintiff was called the complainant;^[12] Merriam-Webster still notes this use for the party filing the bill in equity pleading.^[3] From 1861 the OED also records it of someone who complains of ill health.^[6]

Timeline

• 1415 – a plaintiff in a court of law.^[2]
• c. 1450 – adjective, complaining.^[2]
• 1495 – the legal sense in an Act of Henry VII.^[6]
• 1525 – anyone who complains; a complainer.^[6]
• 1861 – a person who complains of ill health.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (law) The party who brings a legal complaint or files a formal charge against another; a plaintiff, especially in a court of equity.^{[9][3][13][12]}
2. (law) A person who alleges that a crime has been committed, or a witness for the prosecution in a criminal case.^[9][10]
3. (archaic) A person who complains; a complainer.^[3][6]

Adjective

1. (rare) Complaining, or formally making a complaint.^[10][6][3]

Related words

• complain
• complaint
• plaint
• plaintiff
• plangent

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b Garner, Bryan A., ed. (2004), Black's Law Dictionary, 8th ed., St. Paul, Minn.: Thomson West
13. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins