- Confidence
- Established
- Formation
- Compound
- First attested
- Cicero
- Ultimate origin
- Proto-Indo-European (*h₂meygʷ-)
Etymology tree
Pronunciation
Forms
dēmigrō (present infinitive dēmigrāre, perfect active dēmigrāvī, supine dēmigrātum); first conjugation[1]
Etymology
It is from Latin dē- + migrō (“to move, migrate”).[2][1] De Vaan reconstructs ⟨migrō⟩ via Proto-Italic ⟨*migro-⟩ from Proto-Indo-European *h₂mi-gʷ-ro- (“changing”), cognate with Ancient Greek ἀμείβω (ameíbō, “to change”).[3]
Earliest recorded meaning
Gaffiot cites Caesar for leaving towns to settle elsewhere, and Lewis & Short call it classical.[4][5] Köbler dates Caesar c. 50 BC.[6]
Semantic evolution
It meant to go away from a place, move out, migrate, especially to settle elsewhere, as in Caesar's dē oppidīs dēmigrāre and Cicero; and figuratively to depart.[2][5][4]
English demigrate is from it.[1]
Timeline
Meanings
Verb
Word family
- dēmigrātiō
Related words
References
- ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
- ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
- ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry
“Demigro.” Etymologically, 17 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/demigro. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.
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