Expatriate and ex-patriot are words that are close in spelling and pronunciation and may be considered confusables. We will examine the different meanings of the confusables expatriate and ex-patriot, the word origins of the terms, and some examples of their English usage in sentences.
Expatriate refers to someone living outside his native country. Expatriate may be used as an adjective, noun or verb. Derived forms are expatriates, expatriated, expatriating, expatriation, the noun form of expatriate is sometimes abbreviated as expat. Originally, an expatriate was someone exiled from his home country, derived from the mid-1700s French word expatrier, meaning banish. The term expatriate carries the connotation that the person in question will one day return to his country of origin, or at least wishes to one day return to his country of origin.
Ex-patriot is an eggcorn, which is a misheard word or phrase that retains the meaning of the original, correct word or phrase. Ex-patriot is not a word. A patriot is someone who supports his or her country, even to defending it against enemies. Theoretically, ex-patriot would describe someone who once supported his her country, but no longer does; however, ex-patriot is not a proper word.
Examples
The Saudi General Department of Passports (Jawazat) announced that expatriates in the Kingdom must have their children aged six and above fingerprinted as registering biometric data is a prerequisite for completing procedures of a residency permit (iqama) and travel, local media reported. (Gulf News)
A wider scope of expatriate workers will be deemed as high-end talent in Shanghai as of Monday as part of the city’s continuous effort to attract talent from around the world to contribute to its development, the city’s foreign expert bureau said on Monday. (The Star)
The Ege Eye is a regional English language newspaper based in Kuşadası that is not only celebrating its 15th year this April, the team behind this newspaper geared toward expats in Turkey will also be publishing their 200th edition. (Daily Sabah)