Word of the Day

: January 1, 2015

emigrate

verb EM-uh-grayt

What It Means

: to leave one's place of residence or country to live elsewhere

emigrate in Context

"… graduates and skilled technical workers are also emigrating, usually with a plan to save up for a few years and then return." - The Economist, November 5, 2013

"I needed work and I had a friend whose dad and grandfather were in the shoe-repair business. The grandfather, a shoe builder, had emigrated from Hungary and had a shop at Lloyd Center in Portland, and I went to work for them." - Ron Wells, quoted in The Columbian (Vancouver, Washington), December 1, 2014

Did You Know?

Migrate, emigrate, and immigrate are all about being on the move. All those terms come from the Latin word migrare, which means "to move from one place to another." Emigrate and immigrate sound alike, and it is true that both involve leaving one location and entering another. The subtle difference between them lies in point of view: emigrate stresses leaving the original place, while immigrate focuses on entering the new one. You won't have trouble keeping them straight if you remember that the prefix e- means "away," as in eject, and the prefix im- or in- means "into," as in inject.