trabalhante

Trabalhante is a Portuguese term used as both a noun and an adjective to refer to a person who works or performs labor. In everyday usage, the most common words for a worker are trabalhador (masculine) and trabalhadora (feminine). Trablhante, however, appears mainly in formal, academic, or legal language, and in some contexts it can be used to designate workers more broadly or as part of a sociological or historical description, such as in the expression classe trabalhante.

Etymology and form: The word is formed from the verb trabalhar (to work) with the agent suffix -ante, which in Portuguese yields words that denote someone who performs a given action. Grammatical gender with trabalhante is typically neutral, capable of referring to any gender in practice; plural forms are trabalhantes. In contemporary prose, some writers may prefer feminine forms like trabalhadora, especially in everyday speech, while trabalhante remains common in more formal registers.

Usage: Trablhante is versatile but not as common as trabalhador/trabalhadora in colloquial speech. It can refer to an individual worker or to workers as a group in formal texts, such as sociological descriptions or historical overviews of labor. It may also appear in legal or institutional documents to denote the worker side in discussions about labor rights, conditions, or class analysis, though this usage varies by country and style guide.

See also: Trabalhador, Trabalhadora, Trabalho, Classe trabalhante, Emprego.