Refugee

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈɹɛfjʊd͡ʒiː/

Definitions

1. A person forced to flee their home country due to war, persecution, or natural disaster and seeking safety elsewhere
2. An individual who has left their homeland due to conflict, oppression, or catastrophic events, often in search of asylum or a safe haven
3. Someone who escapes from their country because of violence, discrimination, or disasters, aiming to find security in another place

Etymology: The story begins in 1685, when Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes and French Huguenots, Protestants facing religious persecution, fled their homeland. The French word for them, "réfugié," came from "réfugier," meaning to seek refuge, and it was tied to the Old French "refuge," a hiding place. Those roots reach back to Latin "refugium," a place to flee back to. For about two centuries, the English term kept that narrower sense of someone seeking asylum. The meaning widened in 1914, when it was first applied to civilians in Flanders heading west to escape the fighting of the First World War. That shift turned a word for religious exiles into one for anyone driven from home by conflict. English already had a native word for fleeing, "flīema" in Old English, but it did not survive in this sense, and the borrowed French term took its place.

Synonyms: asylum seeker, displaced person

Antonyms: citizen