Etymologically
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deport

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /dɪˈpɔːt/[1]
  • US: /dɪˈpɔɹt/[1]

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

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