Emigrated

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To have relocated from one nation to another for the purpose of establishing a new home
2. To have left one’s country of origin with the intent to settle in a foreign land
3. Moved from their home country to take up residence in a different nation

Etymology: "Emigrated" is the past tense and past participle of "emigrate", so the history belongs to the verb itself. The verb comes from Latin "emigro", meaning "to move away, remove, depart from a place", built from "ex-", meaning "out of, from", and "migro", meaning "to move, remove, depart". Its past participle "emigratus" passed into English, so the core idea is simply leaving one place behind. What makes the word stand out is how plainly it still carries that Latin sense of stepping out of somewhere. The "e-" is the old "ex-" prefix worn down to a single letter, and the rest is the same root that gives English "migrate", "migrant" and "migration". The verb's narrower modern sense, leaving one country to settle in another, grew out of that general notion of departing, which is why the word can apply to any sort of departure but now usually describes a move across a national border.

Synonyms: departed, left, migrated, relocated, transferred

Antonyms: immigrated, arrived, settled