deport

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French deporter (“to behave; to bear with, spare”),^[2][3][4][5] which Barnhart calls Middle French,^[6] formed from de- and porter (“to carry”),^[3][2][5] from Latin portō (“to carry”),^[2][6] from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to lead, pass over”).^[2] The American Heritage Dictionary derives the Old French verb from Latin dēportō (“to carry off, transport, banish, exile”).^[4] In the sense "to banish, carry away", a 17th-century use, the word is borrowed from French déporter,^[2][3][5][6] which goes back directly to the same Latin verb,^[2][3][4] from dē- (“off, away”) and portō.^[2][3] The OED notes that Darmesteter treated the French senses of behaving and of banishing as historically unconnected.^[3] The Anglo-Norman verb, recorded from the early 12th century, meant to remove or take away, to spare, and to abstain.^[7] The Latin verb was associated by folk etymology with portus (“harbour”).^[2][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

To bear with or treat with consideration: 1474, in Caxton's translation of the Game and Playe of the Chesse.^[3] Barnhart dates the sense "to behave, conduct oneself" to the same text,^[6] and Dictionary.com dates the word to 1475–85.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Old French deporter had a wide range of senses, from "behave" and "be patient" to "amuse", "console" and "send away".^[2] Caxton's early uses, to spare someone and to abstain or refrain, did not outlast the early 17th century.^[3][5] The reflexive sense "to conduct oneself" is recorded from 1598,^[3][10] and the noun deportment from 1601.^[6] The sense "to carry away, to banish", from French, appears before 1641;^[3][6] Etymonline dates it to the 1640s.^[2] The French verb is recorded in this sense by the Académie in 1798,^[3] and Weekley dates it to the 18th century.^[8] An obsolete noun deport, bearing or behaviour, was used from 1474 to 1740,^[3][5] and Johnson (1755) quoted Milton's "goddess-like deport" for it.^[11] In India the verb was used from 1909 for "to detain".^[3]

Timeline

• 1474 – to bear with, to spare (obsolete by 1481); noun, bearing, behaviour (obsolete by 1740).^[3]
• 1477 – reflexive, to abstain, refrain (obsolete by 1613).^[3][5]
• 1598 – reflexive, to behave or conduct oneself.^[3][10]
• before 1641 – to carry away, remove; to banish.^[3][6] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1640s.^[2]
• 1909 – in India, to detain.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To expel a foreigner from a country, especially by legal order: The visitors were deported for overstaying their visas.^[12][10]
2. To carry or remove someone forcibly from their home or country; to transport or banish.^[12][10][3]
3. To behave or conduct oneself in a certain way: He deported himself calmly throughout the trial.^[12][10][3]
4. (obsolete, 1477–1613) To abstain or refrain.^[3][5]
5. (obsolete) To bear with or treat with consideration; to spare.^[3][5]

Noun

1. (obsolete, 1474–1740) Bearing, behaviour, deportment.^{[3][5][10][11]}

Word family

• deportable
• deportee
• deporter
• deportation
• nondeported
• undeported

Related words

• deportment
• comport
• disport
• export
• import
• transport
• port

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ 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.
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins