pattern - What is a Veteran Word™?

If a word conforms to a certain rule, I call it a Veteran Word™.

Use the following examples below to find the rule:

Here is a CSV version:

Veteran WordsTM, Not Veteran WordsTM

AGENT, ASSISTANT*
ALPHABET, FUNDAMENTALS
BUDGET, ALLOCATION*
JEANS, TROUSERS
LASER, BEAM
PAUSE, HALT*
RADIO, RECEIVER

SAUCE, FLAVOURING
TAXI, CARRIAGE
VETERAN**, WISE

*Half a Veteran WordTM
**Only just a Veteran WordTM

Answer

As suggested by the language tag, I think a Veteran Word™ may be

something to do with foreign languages: specifically, a word which is the same in English, French, and German.

All the words in the left-hand column, according to

my knowledge of French, supported by Google Translate for the rarer words and the German,

satisfy this criterion. VETERAN is "only just" a Veteran Word™ because

the French for "veteran" is "vétéran", which is only the same word if we ignore diacritics.

The words in the right-hand column which are "half a Veteran Word™" are so because

the English word is the same in one of French and German but not both: the German for "halt" is "Halt" but the French is "halte"; the French for "assistant" is "assistant" but the German is "Assistent"; the French for "allocation" is "allocation" but the German is "Zuweisung".

They're called Veteran Words™ because

They are 'war veterans' as the 3 countries all fought in WWI and WWII