plaintiff

From Middle English plaintif, from Anglo-Norman, from Old French plaintif (“complaining; as a noun, one who complains, a plaintiff”) from the verb plaindre. Doublet of plaintive.

plaintiff (plural plaintiffs)

1. (law) A party bringing a suit in civil law against a defendant; accusers.

• complainant, litigant, claimant (English law), pursuer (Scottish law)

• defendant, suspect

• litigant, litigator

• suer, petitioner

• plaintive

• plaintiff in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• plaintiff in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.