patriot

/ˈpeɪtriət/

/ˈpeɪtriɪt/

Other forms: patriots

A patriot is someone who loves and who has sometimes fought for his or her country. “Nathan Hale was a true patriot; his only regret was that he had but one life to give for his country.”

The word patriot comes from patrios (Greek, not Latin for once), which means "of one’s father." So, despite various references to the motherland, the word patriot more or less lands us square in the fatherland arena. And if you’re a football fan, the New England Patriots is a near-Boston-based team (Boston being a major source of American patriots in the Revolutionary War). And, if you want to get yourself in trouble, you can wander Boston with a megaphone chanting, “The Patriots stink.”

Definitions of patriot

1. noun

   one who loves and defends his or her country
   synonyms: nationalist

   examples:

   Giuseppe Garibaldi

   Italian patriot whose conquest of Sicily and Naples led to the formation of the Italian state (1807-1882)

   Maud Gonne

   Irish patriot and a founder of the Sinn Fein (1865-1953)

   Tadeusz Andrzej Bonawentura Kosciuszko

   Polish patriot and soldier who fought with Americans in the American Revolution (1746-1817)

   Giuseppe Mazzini

   Italian nationalist whose writings spurred the movement for a unified and independent Italy (1805-1872)

   types:

   chauvinist, flag-waver, hundred-percenter, jingo, jingoist, patrioteer

   an extreme bellicose nationalist

   type of:

   national, subject

   a person who owes allegiance to that nation