Expellees

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Individuals who have been forcibly removed from their home or country due to conflict or persecution
2. People who have been expelled from a place, often in a context of political or social unrest
3. Those who are displaced as a result of governmental action or expulsion, typically seeking refuge elsewhere

Etymology: "Expellees" is the plural of "expellee", a noun formed in English by adding the suffix "-ee" to the verb "expel". The "-ee" ending marks the person who undergoes an action, so an expellee is someone who has been expelled, as opposed to the expeller who does the expelling. The suffix came into English from Old French, where it appeared in words such as "employee" and "trustee", and English speakers adopted it freely to form new nouns of this kind. The verb "expel" itself comes from Latin "expellere", meaning "to drive out", built from "ex-" ("out") and "pellere" ("to drive"). Its sense of forcing someone out of a country, group or institution is the older meaning, which is why the derived noun fits so naturally with the idea of people pushed out of their homes during upheaval.