In light of recent events in the States, there were controversial discussions about the use of the word "rape" and "sexual assault". I know for a fact that "rapist" is the correct term to describe one who performed the act of rape but for the latter term, is "sexual assaulter" a correct English term? For me, it just sounds weird. I was thinking that maybe "sexual assailant" is the proper term given that both "assault" and "assail" comes from a common Latin root word assilire but I am not sure.
Learn English – Is “assaulter” a proper English term
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Daily Writing Tips has [reformatted]:
Some speakers hate to hear people use the word prioritize, complaining that “it’s a made-up word [aren't they all?] that shouldn’t be used.”
Prioritize is a fairly new word, coined in the 1950s, and growing in popularity since the early 1960s. Speakers use it to mean:
to give priority to
to designate something as worthy of special attention
to arrange items to be dealt with in order of importance
to establish priorities
to establish priorities for a set of tasks
Here are some examples of its use online:
KMT, CCP agree to prioritize service trade agreement
How to Prioritize Your Debts
Council Approves Two Projects That Prioritize Pedestrian and Bike Safety
Four Must Know To-Do Lists To Prioritize Tasks
Strengthening parliaments in nascent democracies: the need to prioritize legislative reforms
As late as 1982, twenty years after prioritize entered the language, the OED acknowledged its existence, but included an apologetic note, saying, “prioritize is a word that at present sits uneasily in the language.”
Thirty-two years later, the OED site employs the word prioritizing unapologetically in a discussion of the term “network neutrality”:
This concept [network neutrality] has been the subject of much debate in recent years, reflecting something axiomatic for many Internet users; that all data on the net should be treated equally by Internet service providers, without favouring particular formats, products, or web sites by charging extra fees, prioritizing or blocking data of certain types, and so on.
The dictionaries I've checked in that do flag for 'formal' usage in 2016 (CDO and Macmillan) do not add the caveat for 'prioritize/prioritise'. And among the first 10 of the 45 000+ Google hits for "prioritise my" are examples 'Why I finally decided to prioritise my personal life over my' / 'How should I prioritise my debts?' [x3]/ 'Is there a way to prioritise my ps4's Internet usage?' / 'how could I prioritise my network connections' / 'Why I Decided To Prioritise My Daily Meditation' / 'I need to know how to prioritise my different devices on the new hub' (the other one may be more formal; it's by a business person).
In summary:
(1) There are Google Ngram hits for as far back as 1829 for 'prioritise', but very few. The major use (either spelling) has been post-1950.
(2) The evidence indicates that the verb is considered part of the lexicon now, and its use is by no means confined to formal (in particular bureaucratic) registers.
OED sense 2b, is the one to which @Ricky refers of a man who accompanies a woman to a dance etc. The first reference is from 1936.
2b. A person (usually a man) accompanying a woman to a dance, party, etc.
1936 Literary Digest 12 Dec. 29/1 The escort merely announces himself downstairs at the client's address and presently she appears.
1946 K. Tennant Lost Haven (1947) xvii. 267 Miss O'Shea was drinking ginger-beer and her escort had a shandy.
1955 T. Sterling Evil of Day viii. 95 The forget-me-not corsage..she had bought for herself, explaining to her escort that gardenias gave her a headache.
1955 J. P. Donleavy Ginger Man xii. 123 I've just walked into a bar, and I was frightened to death that the barman would tell me that women without escorts couldn't come in.
However a "draft addition" to the OED dated 2006, refers to the use of "escort" as a euphemism for "prostitute". The first two citations seem to apply to the sense of 2b above. It is only the examples from 1941 on that seem to reflect the prostitute sense.
A person hired through an agency to provide companionship or (esp. in later use) to act as a sexual partner; (euphem.) a prostitute. Frequently attrib., as escort agency, escort girl, escort service, etc.
1874 Bucks County (Pa.) Gaz. 14 May 2/3 She must go to the Escort Bureau and pay the price... A first-class dancing man brings five dollars... A theatre escort brings only two dollars.
1924 Los Angeles Times 9 Jan. iii. 1/4 When a damsel is seized with a sudden desire to attend a cabaret or hotel dinner-dance, all she will have to do is call the nearest escort agency.
1941 Los Angeles Times 27 May ii. 20/6 Another member of the [vice] squad, also had an escort girl sent to the hotel... She..took off all her clothes and got into bed.
1953 Chicago Tribune 14 Sept. i. 2/5 Some of the ring's female ‘escorts’ were young women who held jobs as stenografers and typists during day hours, and turned to prostitution at night.
1997 E. White Farewell Symphony (1998) vi. 257 I was so desperate..that I ordered up a hustler. In a gay paper I'd seen an ad for an escort agency.
2004 Federal Reporter 3rd Ser. 378 1286 A web-based escort service which allowed customers to select a particular prostitute from pictures posted on a website.
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Best Answer
Both assaulter and assailant are correct and are synonyms (see http://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/assailant).
However, assailant is much more widely used: