Other forms: warriors
A warrior is a fighter, especially in older or tribal societies. A great warrior, warrior culture, warriors of the tribe.
It differs from soldier in belonging to a society rather than an institution — soldiers are trained and paid, warriors are made by their people. The word is used admiringly now of anybody who fights on, as in a cancer warrior. Note the same root as war.
1nounwarriorA fighter, especially in an older society.
“The Viking warriors sailed across the sea to raid the coast.”
warrior is a fighter.
Old French werreier means a fighter, from Frankish werra, quarrel or confusion. War is the same root.
Proto-Indo-European
*wers- — to mix up, confuse, beat, thresh
Frankish
*werʀu — confusion; quarrel
Medieval Latin
werra
Old French
guerroiier — fighter, combattant
Anglo-Norman
werreur
Middle English
werreour
English, today
warrior
From Middle English werreour, from Anglo-Norman werreur, Old French guerroiier (“fighter, combattant”), from Medieval Latin werra, from Frankish werʀu (“confusion; quarrel”), from Proto-Indo-European wers- (“to mix up, confuse, beat, thresh”). Displaced earlier Old English cempa and many others.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA