prisoner of war

English

WOTD – 18 August 2022

Etymology

Calque of French prisonnier de guerre, prisonier de guerre (obsolete).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɪz.(ə).nə əv ˈwɔː/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɪz.(ə).nɚ əv ˈwoɹ/
• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: pri‧son‧er of war

• Audio (Canada):

  (file)

Noun

prisoner of war (plural prisoners of war)

1. A combatant or soldier who is captured by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict. [from early 17th c.]

   Synonyms: (abbreviations) POW, PW

   As a prisoner of war, he was interrogated by his enemy captors.

Derived terms

• prisoner-of-war camp

Translations

combatant or soldier captured by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict

• Albanian: rob lufte m
• Arabic: أَسِير الْحَرْب m (ʔasīr al-ḥarb), أَسِير m (ʔasīr)
• Armenian: ռազմագերի (hy) (ṙazmageri)
• Azerbaijani: hərbi əsir
• Belarusian: ваеннапало́нны (vajennapalónny), пало́нны m (palónny)
• Bulgarian: военнопле́нник m (voennoplénnik)
• Burmese: စစ်သုံ့ပန်း (cacsum.pan:), သုံ့ပန်း (my) (sum.pan:)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 戰俘／战俘 (zh) (zhànfú), 俘虜／俘虏 (zh) (fúlǔ)

• Czech: zajatec (cs) m, válečný zajatec m
• Danish: krigsfange c
• Dutch: krijgsgevangene (nl) m or f, oorlogsgevangene (nl) m or f
• Esperanto: militkaptito (eo)
• Estonian: sõjavang
• Faroese: krígsfangi m
• Finnish: sotavanki (fi)
• French: prisonnier de guerre (fr) m, prisonnière de guerre f
• Galician: prisioneiro de guerra m, prisioneira de guerra f
• Georgian: სამხედრო ტყვე (samxedro ṭq̇ve)
• German: Kriegsgefangener (de) m, Kriegsgefangene (de) f
• Greek: αιχμάλωτος πολέμου m or f (aichmálotos polémou)

  Ancient: αἰχμάλωτος m or f (aikhmálōtos)

• Hebrew: שָׁבוּי m (shavúy), שְׁבוּיָה f (shvuyá)
• Hindi: युद्ध-बंदी m (yuddh-bandī), बंदी (hi) m (bandī)
• Hungarian: hadifogoly (hu)
• Icelandic: stríðsfangi m
• Indonesian: tahanan perang
• Interlingua: prisionero de guerra
• Italian: prigioniero di guerra m, prigioniera di guerra f
• Japanese: 捕虜 (ja) (ほりょ, horyo)
• Kazakh: соғыс тұтқыны (soğys tūtqyny), әскери тұтқын (äskeri tūtqyn)
• Khmer: អ្នកទោសសង្គ្រាម (nĕək tooh sɑngkriəm)
• Korean: 전쟁 포로(戰爭捕虜) (jeonjaeng poro), 포로(捕虜) (ko) (poro)
• Kyrgyz: согуш туткуну (soguş tutkunu)
• Latin: dēditīcius m
• Latvian: karagūsteknis m
• Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can
• Malay: tahanan perang
• Marathi: युद्धकैदी m (yuddhakaidī)
• Nandi: cheploñgio
• Navajo: yisnááh
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: krigsfange m

  Nynorsk: krigsfange (nn) m

• Ottoman Turkish: طالاق (dalak)
• Persian: اسیر (fa) (asir), اسیر جنگی (asir-e jangi), اسیر حربی (asir-e harbi)
• Polish: jeniec wojenny m pers
• Portuguese: prisioneiro de guerra m, prisioneira de guerra f
• Romanian: prizonier de război m
• Russian: военнопле́нный (ru) m (vojennoplénnyj), пле́нный (ru) m (plénnyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: prìosanach-chogaidh m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: заробљеник m, ратни заробљеник m

  Roman: zarobljenik (sh) m, ratni zarobljenik m

• Slovak: zajatec m, vojnový zajatec m
• Slovene: ujetnik (sl) m, vojni ujetnik m
• Spanish: prisionero de guerra m, prisionera de guerra f
• Swahili: mfungwa wa vita
• Swedish: krigsfånge (sv) c
• Tajik: асир (tg) (asir), асири ҳарбӣ (asir-i harbi)
• Tamil: போர் கைதி (pōr kaiti)
• Tatar: әсир (tt) (äsir)
• Telugu: యుద్ధ ఖైదీ (yuddha khaidī)
• Thai: เชลยศึก (chá-ləəi-sʉ̀k)
• Turkish: savaş tutsağı (tr), savaş esiri
• Ukrainian: бра́нець (uk) m (bránecʹ), військовополоне́ний m (vijsʹkovopolonényj), полоне́ний m (polonényj)
• Urdu: جنگی قیدی m (jangī qaidī)
• Uyghur: ئەسىر (esir)
• Uzbek: harbiy asir
• Vietnamese: tù binh (vi)
• Volapük: kligafanäböpäb

Further reading

• prisoner of war on Wikipedia.Wikipedia