émigrant

Forms

émigrant (feminine émigrante, masculine plural émigrants, feminine plural émigrantes)^[1]

Etymology

Used as a noun and adjective, it is the present participle from French émigrer (“to emigrate”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The verb is from Latin ēmigrō (“to move house”), formed from ex- and migrō (“to move, migrate”);^[6] Rey traces the Latin verb to an Indo-European root meaning “to change, exchange”, also behind Latin mūtō and mūnus.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The noun is recorded from 1768, in Madame du Deffand, for a person who leaves their country to settle elsewhere.^[7] The Grand Robert and Rey give 1770, the GLLF 1773.^[3][6][4]

Semantic evolution

Under the Revolution émigrant competed with the past participle émigré (noun 1791) for the people who fled France;^[8][6] Littré notes that the debates of the Constituent Assembly in 1791 always say émigrant and never émigré, but émigré won for the Revolution's exiles.^[8][6] Émigrant is now the more neutral word for people who leave their country, while émigré is kept for those settled abroad.^[6]

It was also used of animals that migrate at certain seasons, birds especially;^[8][2] in zoology it has given way to migrateur.^[6] Around 1790–1794 the Père Duchêne used émigrant as the name of a kind of yo-yo.^[7]

Timeline

• 1768 – First record of the noun, in Madame du Deffand.^[7]
• 1770 – Date of the noun given by the Grand Robert and Rey.^[3][6]
• 1791 – The Constituent Assembly's debates speak of émigrants, while émigré appears as a noun the same year.^[8][6]
• 1790–1794 – The Père Duchêne uses it for a kind of yo-yo.^[7]
• 1882 – Maupassant writes of migrating birds as oiseaux émigrants.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An emigrant: a person who leaves their country to settle and live in another.^[2][4][5][1]

Adjective

1. Who emigrates.^[2][8]
2. (dated) Of animals: migrating at certain seasons.^[2][8][1]

Related words

• émigrer
• émigré
• émigration
• immigrant
• migrant

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c d Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
8. ^ a b c d e f Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette