Etymologically
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migration

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /maɪˈɡɹeɪʃ(ə)n/ (UK)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French migration or directly Latin migratio (“a removal, change of abode”),[2][3] from the past participle stem of migrāre (“to move from one place to another”) (see migrate),[4][5] probably from PIE *(e)meigʷ-, an extended form of Proto-Indo-European *mei- (“to change, go, move”).[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Movement from one place to another, chiefly of things: 1611 in the OED;[6] change of residence, 1610s in Etymonline.[4]

Semantic evolution

Of persons or tribes moving from one country to another, it is from 1646 (1640s),[6][4] and of animals moving seasonally in flocks or shoals also from 1646.[6] A number of animals migrating together is by 1880.[4] Etymonline notes that bird migration across the seas was understood in the Middle Ages but later forgotten, and that Johnson held that swallows slept all winter in river beds.[4] In medicine, a change of position of an organ is from 1890,[6] and in chemistry the movement of atoms or ions is a later sense.[6][7]

Timeline

  • 1611 – movement in general.[6]
  • 1646 – of persons and animals.[6]
  • 1880 – a group migrating.[4]
  • 1890 – of a bodily organ.[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The act of migrating, moving from one region to another.
  2. A group of people or animals migrating together.
  3. (chemistry) The movement of atoms within a molecule, or of ions during electrolysis.

Word family

  • migrational
  • countermigration
  • intermigration
  • nonmigration
  • premigration
  • remigration
  • emigration
  • migrant
  • migrate
  • migratory
  • immigration
  • emigrate
  • immigrate
  • mutable

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ 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 h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins