Internee

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ɪntɜːˈniː/

Definitions

1. A person subjected to confinement, typically in a camp, due to legal or political circumstances associated with a war or conflict
2. An individual placed under restrictive conditions often for reasons of security or national interest during times of strife
3. Someone held in custody or confinement during a war or political upheaval

Etymology: The verb "intern" comes from French "interner", meaning to confine within a country's borders, and the noun "internee" is simply that verb with the "-ee" suffix, which marks the person who is acted upon. An internee is therefore literally someone who has been "interned", shut in. The verb itself is older than its modern sense. It descends from Latin "internus", meaning "inward" or "internal", and the sense of confining people within a place arrived in English alongside the idea of holding foreign nationals during wartime. The "-ee" ending, borrowed through Old French and Middle English, is the same suffix found in "employee" and "trustee", which turns a verb into a noun for the person on the receiving end of the action.

Synonyms: detainee, prisoner, captured, confined, enclosed

Antonyms: freeman, liberated, citizen, native, resident