From Latin 'emigrare' (to move out) — gained prominence during the French Revolution for the fleeing aristocracy.
A person who leaves their own country to settle permanently in another.
From Latin 'emigrantem' (nominative 'emigrans'), present participle of 'emigrare' (to move away, to depart from a place, to change one's residence), from 'e-/ex-' (out of, away from) + 'migrare' (to move, to go from one place to another, to change location), from PIE *meigʷ- (to change, to move, to shift — possibly related to *mei-, to exchange). Latin 'migrare' generated 'migrate,' 'migration,' 'immigrant' (one who moves in), 'emigrant' (one who moves out), and 'transmigrate' (to move across — as the soul moves between bodies in Pythagorean belief). The distinction between
During the French Revolution, the aristocrats who fled France were called 'émigrés' — and the label became so politically toxic that the Revolutionary government passed laws confiscating their property and declaring them traitors. The word 'émigré' still carries a faintly aristocratic or political connotation in English that plain 'emigrant' does not.