The Rice University Neologisms Database

An individual who combats in jihad With increased interest on the War on Terror, more Arabic terms have been introduced to English, such as ‘jihad.’ They are given English grammatical principles that allow speakers and writers to shorten terms. Otherwise, the author would have had to write, “the individuals who fight in jihad.” As with “pianist,” a noun referring to a person is made by adding -ist to “jihad.”