optant

Partly (sense 1) borrowed from German Optant or Danish optant (both attested since 1907), partly from opt +‎ ant.

optant (plural optants)

1. A person who lives in a region undergoing a change of sovereignty and thus may choose between retaining their old citizenship or opting for the citizenship of the new sovereignty. [from 1914]
   • 1914, W. R. Prior, Oxford Pamphlets: North Sleswick under Prussian Rule‎^[1], London: Oxford University Press, page 9:

     According to one authority, nearly 40,000 of the Sleswick Danes had become 'optants'—that is, had taken the 'option' of Danish nationality—or had emigrated, by the end of 1880.

2. A person who opts into, out of, or for something. [from 1943]

• Patton, Tapton

optant

1. gerund of optar

Borrowed from Latin optāns, present active participle of optāre.

• IPA^(key): /ɔpˈtɑnt/

• Audio:

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• Hyphenation: op‧tant
• Rhymes: -ɑnt

optant m (plural optanten, diminutive optantje n)

1. optant

optant

1. present participle of opter

optant

1. third-person plural present active indicative of optō