assistant

English

Alternative forms

• assistaunt (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle French assistant, from assister.

Pronunciation

• (UK), (US) IPA^(key): /əˈsɪstənt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /əˈsɪstɛnt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Adjective

assistant (not comparable) (attributive)

1. Having a subordinate or auxiliary position.

   an assistant surgeon

2. Helping; lending aid or support; auxiliary.
   • (Can we date this quote by Beattie and provide title, author's full name, and other details?)

     Genius and learning […] are mutually and greatly assistant to each other.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. In Six Volumes, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: Printed by A[ndrew] Millar, […], OCLC 928184292:

     The person principally assistant on this occasion, indeed the only one who did any service, or seemed likely to do any, was the landlady […]

Translations

having a subordinate or auxiliary position

• Bulgarian: спомагателен (bg) (spomagatelen)
• Catalan: auxiliar (ca)
• Finnish: apu-, vara-, avustava (fi), apulais-
• Georgian: დამხმარე (damxmare)
• German: helfend (de), hilfreich (de)
• Greek: βοηθητικός (el) m (voïthitikós)
• Hungarian: helyettes (hu), segéd (hu)
• Icelandic: aðstoðar- (is)
• Kurdish: asîstan (ku)
• Ladino:

  Roman: ayudador m

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: assisterende

• Portuguese: assistente (pt)
• Romanian: asistent (ro)
• Russian: вспомога́тельный (ru) (vspomogátelʹnyj)
• Spanish: ayudante (es)
• Swahili: naibu (sw)
• Swedish: assisterande (1,2), stödjande (2), hjälpande (2)
• Turkish: asistan (tr)

Noun

assistant (plural assistants)

1. (obsolete) Someone who is present; a bystander, a witness.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 3, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes, […], book II, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:

     a woman of great authority, having first yeelded an accompt unto her Citizens, and shewed good reasons why she was resolved to end her life, earnestly entreated Pompey to be an assistant at her death, that so it might be esteemed more honourable […].

2. A person who assists or helps someone else.
3. (Britain) Sales assistant.
4. A software tool that provides assistance in some task, a wizard program.

   Synonym: wizard

Translations

person who assists

• Albanian: asistent (sq) m, asistente (sq) f
• Arabic: مُسَاعِد‎ (ar) m (musāʿid)
• Armenian: օգնական (hy) (ōgnakan)
• Asturian: asistente m or f
• Belarusian: памо́чнік m (pamóčnik), памо́чніца f (pamóčnica), асістэ́нт m (asistént), асістэ́нтка f (asisténtka)
• Bengali: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: помо́щник (bg) m (pomóštnik), асисте́нт (bg) m (asistént)
• Burmese: အကူ (my) (a.ku)
• Catalan: assistente m or f
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 助理 (zo⁶ lei⁵), 助手 (yue) (zo⁶ sau²)

  Mandarin: 助理 (zh) (zhùlǐ), 助手 (zh) (zhùshǒu)

  Min Nan: 助理 (zh-min-nan) (chō͘-lí), 助手 (chō͘-chhiú)

• Czech: asistent m, asistentka (cs) f, pomocník (cs) m, pomocnice (cs) f
• Danish: assistent, hjælper (da), medhjælper
• Dutch: assistent (nl) m
• Egyptian: (ẖrj-ꜥ)
• Esperanto: asistanto
• Finnish: assistentti (fi), apulainen (fi), avustaja (fi)
• French: assistant (fr) m, aide (fr) f, auxiliaire (fr) m or f
• Galician: asistente m
• Georgian: ასისტენტი (asisṭenṭi)
• German: Assistent (de) m, Mitarbeiter (de) m, Helfer (de) m, Gehilfe (de) m
• Greek: βοηθός (el) m or f (voïthós)

  Ancient: βοηθός m (boēthós), ὑπουργός m (hupourgós)

• Hebrew: please add this translation if you can
• Hindi: please add this translation if you can
• Hungarian: asszisztens (hu), segéd (hu)
• Icelandic: aðstoðarmaður m
• Ido: helpanto (io), helpero (io)
• Indonesian: please add this translation if you can
• Interlingue: assistente
• Irish: cúntóir
• Italian: assistente (it) m or f
• Japanese: 助手 (ja) (じょしゅ, joshu)
• Karelian: abuniekka
• Khmer: អ្នកជំនួយ (neak cumnuəy)

• Korean: 조수 (ko) (josu)
• Kurdish:

  Sorani: شاگرد‎ (ku) (şagrid)

• Latin: adiūtor (la) m, optiō m
• Latvian: asistents m, asistente f, palīgs m, palīdze f
• Lithuanian: asistentas m
• Livvi: abuniekku
• Macedonian: помагач m (pomagač), помагачка f (pomagačka), помошник m (pomošnik), помошничка f (pomošnička), асистент m (asistent), асистентка f (asistentka)
• Malay: pembantu
• Maltese: please add this translation if you can
• Maori: taituarā, kaiāwhina, uruora
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Norman: assistant m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: assistent (no) m, medhjelper m

  Nynorsk: assistent m, medhjelpar m

• Persian: دستیار‎ (fa) (dastyâr), آسیستان‎ (fa) (âsistân)
• Polish: asystent (pl) m, asystentka (pl) f, pomocnik (pl) m, pomocnica (pl) f
• Portuguese: assistente (pt) m or f, ajudante (pt) m or f
• Romanian: asistent (ro) m, asistentă (ro) f, ajutor (ro) m, ajutoare (ro) f
• Russian: ассисте́нт (ru) m (assistént), ассисте́нтка (ru) f (assisténtka), помо́щник (ru) m (pomóščnik), помо́щница (ru) f (pomóščnica)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: помоћник m, асистент m

  Roman: pomoćnik (sh) m, asistent (sh) m

• Slovak: pomocník m, pomocníca f, asistent m, asistentka f
• Slovene: pomočnik m, pomočnica f
• Spanish: ayudante (es) m, asistente (es) m or f
• Swahili: msaidizi (sw)
• Swedish: assistent (sv), medhjälpare (sv) c
• Thai: ผู้ช่วย (pûu chûay)
• Turkish: yardımcı (tr), asistan (tr), muavin (tr)
• Ukrainian: помічни́к m (pomičnýk), помічни́ця f (pomičnýcja), асисте́нт (uk) m (asystént), асисте́нтка (uk) f (asysténtka)
• Volapük: yufan (vo)

an auxiliary software tool — see wizard

Related terms

• assist
• assistance

Anagrams

• Satanists, satanists, stanitsas

---

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.sis.tɑ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

assistant

1. present participle of assister

Noun

assistant m (plural assistants, feminine assistante)

1. assistant

Further reading

• “assistant” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

---

Latin

Verb

assistant

1. third-person plural present active subjunctive of assistō

---

Middle French

Verb

assistant (feminine singular assistante, masculine plural assistans, feminine plural assistantes)

1. present participle of assister
2. (may be preceded by en, invariable) gerund of assister

Noun

assistant m (plural assistans)

1. assistant (person who is present)

---

Norman

Etymology

Borrowed from English assistant.

Noun

assistant m (plural assistants, feminine assistante)

1. (Jersey) assistant