militant [LME] The root of militant, Latin miles ‘soldier’, is shared by military [LME], militate [L16th] originally ‘serve as a soldier’, and militia [L16th]. For most of its history the main sense of militant has been ‘engaged in warfare’, but from the late 19th century militant has particularly meant ‘aggressively active in pursuing a political or social cause’. In Britain the Militant tendency was a Trotskyite political organization which published a weekly newspaper, Militant, between 1964 and 1997.