Etymologically
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migrate

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Pronunciation

  • /maɪˈɡɹeɪt/, /ˈmaɪ.ɡɹeɪt/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin migrātus, the past participle of migrō (“to change one's residence, move from place to place”).[2][3][4][5][6] Barnhart and Weekley take it rather as a back-formation from migration, which is in Cotgrave's dictionary of 1611.[7][8][9] According to Klein the Latin verb stands for an older form made from an adjective reconstructed as Proto-Indo-European *migwros (“moving from place to place”),[10][8] from a base *meigw-, an extension of *mei- (“to change, go”), which is also the source of Ancient Greek ἀμοιβή (amoibḗ, “change”) and Latin meō (“to go, pass”).[10][3] The OED likewise links it with mūnis and mūtō (“to change”).[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a person or a people, to move about, or to move from one place or country to another: 1623, in Henry Cockeram's English Dictionarie.[2][4][7]

Semantic evolution

The sources differ on the first date: the OED, Merriam-Webster and the Concise Barnhart give 1623,[2][4][7] while the full Barnhart gives 1697 and Etymonline the 1690s.[8][3] The verb was at first a general one for moving from one place to another, a use now rare;[11][12] from 1697 it was used of things and ideas that move from their original place.[2] Of animals that move between habitats to breed or feed the OED records it from 1709, Etymonline from 1753;[2][3] Etymonline dates the specific sense of people moving to a distant home, especially in another country, by 1770.[3] Darwin used it of plants spreading to new areas (1859).[2] Later technical senses followed in medicine and embryology, of cells moving within the body (1870), in chemistry, of ions (1899),[2] and in computing, of moving data or programs to a new system (1983) and of users changing to new software (1988).[2] English could immigrate from the early 17th century, but emigrate only in the late 18th.[11]

Timeline

  • 1611 – the noun migration, in Cotgrave.[7][8]
  • 1623 – of people, to move from one place or country to another.[2][4][7]
  • 1697 – of things or ideas, to move away from their original place.[2][8]
  • 1709 – of animals, to move between regions or habitats.[2]
  • 1768 – transitive, to relocate something (rare).[2]
  • 1859 – of plants, to spread to new areas.[2]
  • 1870 – of cells, to move within the body.[2]
  • 1899 – in chemistry, of ions or molecules.[2]
  • 1983 – computing, to transfer data or programs.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To move from one country, region or place in order to settle in another; also, to move about in search of work: Thousands migrated to the coastal cities after the drought.[13][4][2]
  2. Of birds, fish and other animals, to travel regularly between regions at certain seasons.[13][4][2]
  3. Of a cell, ion or the like, to move from one position to another.[2][4]
  4. (computing) To transfer data or programs to another system; also, to change to a different system or software.[2]

Word family

  • migrator
  • migration
  • migrational
  • emigrate
  • immigrate
  • migratory
  • nonmigrating
  • remigrate

Usage notes

The OED notes that Webster (1828) put the stress on the first syllable, which is still standard in the United States, whereas British English moved it to the second syllable in the late 19th century, when the verbal suffix -ate became established with a long vowel.[2] The Century Dictionary, quoted by Etymonline, distinguished migrate, a change of abode with no stress on where it begins or ends, from emigrate, seen from the place left, and immigrate, seen from the place reached.[3]

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 s t u v 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  8. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  9. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  10. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  11. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins