pugilist

From Latin pugil (“boxer”) +‎ -ist, related to pugnus (“fist”),^[1] from Proto-Indo-European *pewǵ- (“prick, punch”). Compare contemporary pugilism (“boxing”) (1791).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpjuː.d͡ʒəlɪst/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpju(ː).d͡ʒəlɪst/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

pugilist (plural pugilists)

1. One who fights with their fists, especially a professional prize fighter; a boxer. [from 1790]

   Synonym: (informal) pug

   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick:

     I laugh and hoot at ye, ye cricket-players, ye pugilists, ye deaf Burkes and blind Bendigoes!

   • 2018, Alan Burdick, “Science has Resolved the Question of Boxers vs. Briefs”, in The New Yorker‎^[1]:

     In 1925, boxer shorts were unleashed on the world: loose-fitting underwear for men, featuring an elastic waistband inspired by the shorts worn by boxers. It was underwear for the inner pugilist.

2. (figurative) One who engages in rhetorical attacks, for himself or on behalf of another.
   • 2025 January 31, Cameron Joseph, “Why Republicans blasted Tulsi Gabbard and RFK Jr. – and bear-hugged Kash Patel”, in The Christian Science Monitor:

     Mr. Patel has a long record as a fierce pugilist for Mr. Trump, pushing some of the pro-Trump orbit’s most dubious theories[.]

   • 2025 April 16, Laurent Belsie, “Why Trump’s ‘madman theory’ tactics could run aground amid trade reversals”, in The Christian Science Monitor:

     President Nixon tried to make leaders of communist bloc countries believe he was a volatile, irrational pugilist.

• pugilistic

• pugilism
• pugnacious

Borrowed from French pugiliste.

• IPA^(key): /ˌpy.ɣiˈlɪst/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: pu‧gi‧list
• Rhymes: -ɪst

pugilist m (plural pugilisten, feminine pugiliste)

1. pugilist, boxer, fistfighter

   Synonyms: bokser, vuistvechter

• pugiliste
• pugilistiek
• pugilistisch

• pugilisme

Borrowed from French pugiliste.

• IPA^(key): /pu.d͡ʒiˈlist/

pugilist m (plural pugiliști, feminine equivalent pugilistă)

1. pugilist, boxer (participant in a boxing match)

   Synonym: boxer

• pugila
• pugilat
• pugilism
• pugilistic
• pugilistică

• “pugilist”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2025