Attacker

How to spell attacker

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce attacker

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does attacker mean?

1. nounA person who uses force or aggression against someone or something.

Attacker in a sentence

• The victim could not describe the attacker to the police.

• Security footage helped identify the attacker within hours.

Where does attacker come from?

Language of origin: Italian

The base verb attack came into English in the early 1600s from the French attaquer, which the French had themselves borrowed from the Italian attaccare. The Italian verb originally meant 'to attach' or 'to join', and the fuller phrase attaccare battaglia meant 'to join battle', from which the fighting sense was lifted. Underneath sits a Germanic root for a stake or peg, the same idea that gave us 'attach', so to attack and to attach are close cousins that simply went separate ways in meaning. The agent ending -er was then added in English to name the person doing the action, giving attacker. The spelling trap is the doubled t inherited straight from Italian attaccare, while the c here takes a single hard sound rather than the doubled cc of the Italian original.

How the word is built

• attack (verb, from Italian attaccare: to join battle)
• -er (agent suffix: one who does)