A person whom you consider to be your potential companion?

Question

Suppose someone wants to go on a difficult military/research mission and he needs three people to accompany him. He looks at a list of possible candidates and marks two of them as [possible/presumable/likely what?]. {one word or idiom would be best}

I was thinking of the word "candidate" that I already used but neither Cambridge Dictionary nor Merriam-Webster has the definition that I need for this word.

I was thinking of the words "partner" and "companion" but you are not sure if they are going to accompany you or they are your final choice.

The thing is you mark them as likely to go and likely to be finally chosen by you but the choice is yours and theirs together. A person who remains to be determined by you and also yet remains unasked.

I tried to look for "potential companion" and "potential partner" as one word or idiom but all I found was "catch" - {informal} a person who is considered to be very suitable for a relationship but that is only related to a relationship.

I'm looking for a word like "catch" (noun) but in regard to a military/research mission and it shouldn't refer to a relationship.

Thanks to SteveES and Peter I've managed to find more words "preferences" and "potentials". However, I am unsure whether I can use them in such context.

Answer 1

I think you maybe confusing two different things: 1) the relationship once it is secured: partner, companion; and 2) the probability of outcome: possible, potential, likely.

Your example of

catch

is interesting since it shows one side of a two-sided attraction and makes me think that

choice

might work for you

She is a possible choice, for office manager.
He is my choice for president.

might work for you, it indicates

Answer 2

Suppose someone wants to go on a difficult military/research mission and he needs three people to accompany him. He looks at a list of possible candidates and marks two of them as...

The story is ambiguous. He could be marking the ones he likes best for the task, or proceed by subtraction, marking the anyone buts or certainly nots. You probably mean the former.

"Preferred" and "Top choice" are the idioms that would naturally come up in the ensuing conversation. So are "best fit" and "most suitable" and "would do"

The word candidate is fine, except that the question of who put them forward is relevant. Historically, a candidate puts him or herself forward, but in modern English usage a person can unwittingly be a candidate, i.e. being considered by other persons prior to any conversation about the role or task.

The problem with favourite is that there may be connotations of, well, favouritism, i.e. preference based on improper grounds.

Answer 3

I think you will struggle to find a single word which means "partner" or "companion" but also contains an implication of "potentially".

As a single word noun containing an implication of "potentially", your word "candidate" is great. It does not, of course, imply partner/companion/teammate though:

candidate: a person seeking or nominated for election to a position of authority or honour or selection for a job, promotion, etc

^{dictionary.com}

So I looked up "candidate" at thesaurus.com, and found "contender":

contender: a person, team, etc. having or regarded as having a good chance to win a contest or competition

^{collinsdictionary.com}

Dictionaries necessarily can't cover all potential uses of a word; they're trying to fit lots of definitions in without using too much space. In my experience both "candidate" and "contender" mean someone who may potentially get a position, and I would count a companion on a mission as a "position". The main difference between "candidate" and "contender" is the likelihood of getting the position: if 10 people apply for a job they are all candidates, but if 2 of them are far better qualified than the others, they are the only contenders.

Answer 4

I can't think of any one word that encompasses the full nuanced meaning that you would like. If you want to make it clear what the role of the people chosen is, the fact that they are the preferred choices and that they have not yet fully signed up then you would have to use an adjective-noun combination, or put a description of this part elsewhere.

There are many options for both the adjectives and the nouns, here are a few:

• Adjectives: likely, preferred, favoured, first-choice, possible, potential, etc
• Nouns: comrades, recruits, candidates, companions, partners, colleagues, associates, etc

However, if you don't feel the need to define their role in the description, just that two candidates were chosen, you could use the word favourites (or favorites in AmE) to indicate that the two who were chosen are the preferred options. E.g.

Looking through the list he marked down his two favourites.

You could also use first choice to indicate something similar, but it would not be as good with two choices and would sound better as an adjective (e.g. "first-choice recruits"). Picks would also be a possibility, but it would probably sound better to say what you are picking (e.g. "he marked out his picks for the role").