emigrant

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin ēmigrāns (“moving away”), the present participle of ēmigrō (“to move out, depart”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} formed from ē- and migrō (“to move, depart”),^[4][7][8] from Proto-Indo-European *mei- (“to change, go, move”).^[3][8] The OED suggests that the first English use followed German Emigrant, recorded from 1635, which was applied to the Protestants driven out of the diocese of Salzburg in 1731.^[2] The sense of a royalist refugee follows French émigrant, used so from about 1790 for those who fled the Revolution.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who leaves their own country or region to settle in another: 1732, in J. Burroughs's Two Sermons, of the German Protestant refugees.^[2][3] Merriam-Webster dates the noun to 1735,^[4][9] and Dictionary.com to 1745–55, as an Americanism.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The first English record refers to the German Protestant exiles from Salzburg, but the OED's first sense is already the general one, anyone who leaves their homeland to settle elsewhere.^[2][3] From 1792, in a letter of Gibbon, it also meant a supporter of the French monarchy who had fled the Revolution, a sense now usually expressed by émigré.^[2][10] The adjective appears in 1747,^[2] though Merriam-Webster dates it to 1773^[4] and Etymonline to 1794;^[3] it was used of migratory birds from 1767.^[2] In 19th-century America an emigrant was especially a settler moving from the eastern states to the unsettled lands of the West.^[4] Physiology adopted the noun and adjective in 1871 for cells that move from their usual place into another part of the body.^[2]

Timeline

• 1732 – noun, a person who leaves their country to settle in another.^[2][3]
• 1747 – adjective, emigrating, leaving one's country to settle elsewhere.^[2]
• 1767 – adjective, of a bird, leaving its usual home; migratory.^[2]
• 1792 – a royalist who fled the French Revolution.^[2]
• 1871 – physiology, a cell that has moved from its usual position.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who leaves their own country or region to settle permanently in another: Thousands of emigrants sailed from the port that spring.^{[11][4][2][12]}
2. (US history) A pioneer moving in the 19th century from the settled eastern United States to the unsettled lands of the West.^[4]
3. A migrant plant or animal.^[9][4]
4. (history) A supporter of the French monarchy who fled during the French Revolution; an émigré.^[2][10]
5. (physiology) A cell that has moved from its place of origin into another part of the body.^[2]

Adjective

1. Leaving, or having left, one's country to settle elsewhere: emigrant families.^[4][9][2]
2. Of, for or used by emigrants: an emigrant ship.^[12][4][10]

Word family

• nonemigrant

Related words

• emigration
• emigrate
• immigrant
• migrant
• migrate
• émigré

Usage notes

The American Heritage Dictionary notes that emigrate and immigrate are used only of people and imply a permanent move, usually across a political boundary, while migrate is used of animals too and may imply seasonal or periodic movement.^[12] Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Collins contrast emigrant with immigrant, the same person seen from the country of arrival.^[4][11]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r 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 e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin