Other forms: civilians
A civilian is somebody who is not in the armed forces or the police. Civilian casualties, in civilian clothes, a civilian job.
The distinction carries real legal weight: under the laws of war, civilians may not be targeted, and the whole architecture of the Geneva Conventions rests on telling them from combatants. Note civil beneath it, from the Latin for a citizen.
1nouncivilianSomebody not in the armed forces or the police.
“Many civilians were forced to flee their homes when the fighting began.”
civilian is a person.
Old French civilien comes from Latin civilis, of a citizen, from civis, a citizen.
Old French
civilien
Middle English
cyvylien
English, today
civilian
From Middle English cyvylien, from Old French civilien. Equivalent to civil + -ian.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA