compatriot

Etymology

It is borrowed from French compatriote,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} recorded in French from the 16th century,^[3] from Late Latin compatriōta (“fellow countryman”),^[5][7][6][8] formed from com- (“with, together”) and patriōta (“fellow countryman”),^[5][3][2] the source of patriot.^[5][9] Dictionary.com takes the English word directly from Late Latin.^[10] The Latin word translates Ancient Greek συμπατριώτης (sumpatriṓtēs),^[11][12] partially according to Barnhart,^[4] and the second part is itself from Ancient Greek πατριώτης (patriṓtēs).^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A fellow countryman: 1611, in J. Speed's The History of Great Britaine.^[2][4][6] Etymonline has the 1610s and Dictionary.com 1605–15,^[3][10] while the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English put it in the late 16th century.^[11][12]

Semantic evolution

The sense has hardly moved since the first records. patriot, recorded from the 1590s, itself first meant a fellow countryman.^[3] The word was also used as an adjective, "of the same country", from 1744, in Akenside's Pleasures of Imagination.^[2][11] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as one of the same country, deriving it from Latin patria,^[13] and his 1773 edition added a quotation about a governor entertaining all his compatriots.^[13] Merriam-Webster also records a looser sense, a colleague or peer.^[6]

Timeline

• 1611 – a fellow countryman.^[2][4][6] The Shorter Oxford dates it to the late 16th century.^[11]
• 1744 – attributive and adjective, of the same country.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person born in, living in or holding citizenship of the same country as another; a fellow countryman or countrywoman: The skater congratulated her compatriot on the silver medal.^[8][6][2]
2. A colleague or peer.^[6]

Adjective

1. Of the same country.^[2][11]

Word family

• compatriotic
• compatriotism

Related words

• patriotic
• patriot
• father

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.