Word of the Day

: March 18, 2011

expatriate

noun ek-SPAY-tree-ut

What It Means

: a person who lives in a foreign country; also : a person who has renounced his or her native country

expatriate in Context

After college Joshua got a job teaching English in Prague, where he shared an apartment with several fellow expatriates.

"Carlos operated a catering business within one of the country’s large oil camps, which included a nine-hole golf course that was built for American expatriates." -- From an article by Tod Leonard in The San Diego Union-Tribune, January 21, 2011

Did You Know?

"Patria," the Latin word for "native country," is derived from "pater," meaning "father." ("Patria" is occasionally used for "native country" in English, too.) Speakers of Medieval Latin combined "patria" with the prefix "ex-" ("out of") to form the verb "expatriare," meaning "to leave one's native country," which led to our verb "expatriate" in the 18th century and the adjective and noun "expatriate" in the 19th century. We also have "repatriate" (from Late Latin "repatriare"), which is a verb meaning "to return to one's native country" and a noun meaning "one who is repatriated."