Nearby Words

civilian

[si-vil-yuhn] Example Sentences Origin

ci·vil·ian

[si-vil-yuhn]
noun
1.
a person who is not on active duty with a military, naval, police, or fire fighting organization.
2.
Informal. anyone regarded by members of a profession, interest group, society, etc., as not belonging; nonprofessional; outsider: We need a producer to run the movie studio, not some civilian from the business world.
3.
a person versed in or studying Roman or civil law.
adjective
4.
of, pertaining to, formed by, or administered by civilians.

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Civilian is always a great word to know.
So is zedonk. Does it mean:
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.

Origin:
1350–1400; Middle English: student of civil law < Old French civilien (adj.); see civil, -ian

an·ti·ci·vil·ian, adjective
non·ci·vil·ian, noun
pro·ci·vil·ian, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source Link To civilian
Example Sentences
  • With a military commission, the government would not be rolling the dice with a civilian jury.
  • Basic pay is required by law to grow in line with civilian pay.
  • The target of an air raid could be missed entirely, and innocent people and civilian structures could be damaged.
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Collins
World English Dictionary
civilian (sɪˈvɪljən)
 
n
a.  a person whose primary occupation is civil or nonmilitary
 b.  (as modifier): civilian life
 
[C14 (originally: a practitioner of civil law): from civile (from the Latin phrase jūs cīvīle civil law) + -ian]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

civilian
1388, from O.Fr. civilien "of the civil law," created from L. civilis (see civil). Original meaning in Eng. was "judge or authority on civil law," sense of "non-military person" is first attested 1829.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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