Etymologically
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réfugié

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ʁe.fy.ʒje/[1]

Forms

réfugié m (plural réfugiés, feminine réfugiée)[1]

Etymology

It is the past participle of réfugier, used as an adjective and a noun.[2][3][4] The verb is derived from refuge, shaped after the Latin form refugium (“refuge, asylum”);[5][6] refuge was borrowed from that word about 1120, while Old French mostly used the popular form refui.[7][5] Latin refugium comes from refugiō (“to flee back, seek shelter”), formed from re- (“back”) and fugiō (“to flee”).[7][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The participle is first found as an adjective in 1432, for a person forced to leave a place to escape persecution, danger or a sentence;[7][3] the TLFi and the Petit Robert date it to 1435, in the archives of Brittany.[2][4]

Semantic evolution

It was used as a noun with the same sense from 1573.[7][4] In the plural, les réfugiés were especially the French Protestants who went into exile after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (recorded by the Académie in 1740).[7][3] The modern sense, a person who has left their country for political, religious or racial reasons, appears in the Bulletin des lois in 1832.[7][3]

English took refugee from the French word in the 1680s, first for the Huguenots who fled France after the revocation of 1685; from 1914 it was used of civilians fleeing fighting in Flanders.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 1120 – Refuge is borrowed from Latin.[7]
  • 1432 – Réfugié is first used as an adjective.[7][3]
  • 1573 – Used as a noun.[7][4]
  • 1680s – English borrows it as refugee, of the Huguenots.[8]
  • 1740 – The Académie records réfugiés for exiled Protestants.[3]
  • 1832 – The Bulletin des lois uses it in its modern legal sense.[3][7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A refugee, a person who has had to flee their country or region to escape persecution, war or another danger: aide aux réfugiés, réfugié politique.[4][2]
  2. (historical, plural) The French Protestants who went into exile after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.[3]

Adjective

  1. Having taken refuge outside one's country or region: des révolutionnaires réfugiés.[4][2]
  • réfugier
  • refuge
  • fuir
  • Latin refugium
  • English refugee

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d 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 d e f g h Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  4. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com