PARTISAN, or PARTIZAN  . (I) A thoroughgoing " party " man or adherent, usually in a depreciatory sense of one who puts his party before principles; (2) an irregular combatant or guerrilla soldier; (3) a weapon with a long shaft and a broad bladed head, of a type intermediate between the spear and the halberd (q.v.) . In senses (1) and (2) the word is derived through the Fr. from Ital. partigiano, from parteggiare, to share, take part in, Lat. pars, part . The name for the weapon has also been attributed to the same origin, as being that used by " partisans," but there is no historical evidence for this . The form which the word now takes in French, pertuisane, has given rise to a connexion with pertuis, hole; Lat. pertusus, pertundere, to strike through .