optant

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.
   • 1914, W. R. Prior, Oxford Pamphlets: North Sleswick under Prussian Rule‎, 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.

• Patton, Tapton

optant

1. gerund of optar

optant

1. present participle of opter

optant

1. third-person plural present active indicative of optō