Etymology

refoulement

re·foule·ment
R1E1F4O1U1L1E1M3E1N1T1

Today it means: The involuntary sending of refugees or asylum seekers to their country of origin or another one, where they are likely to face persecution and harm. Full definition →

French refoulement ← Medieval Latin fullare ← Latin fullō
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*bʰleh₃-“to blow; to inflate, swell”
  2. Latin · derived fromfullō“one who fulls cloth, fuller”
  3. Medieval Latin · derived fromfullare“to make cloth denser and firmer by soaking, beating and pressing, to full”
  4. French · borrowed fromrefoulement“act of pushing something back (as gunpowder into a gun barrel, or water by a dam); act of water overflowing; forced relocation of a group of people; forced repatriation of asylum-seekers or refugees”
  5. English todayrefoulement

Borrowed from French refoulement (“act of pushing something back (as gunpowder into a gun barrel, or water by a dam); act of water overflowing; forced relocation of a group of people; forced repatriation of asylum-seekers or refugees”), from refouler (“to cause to flow or turn back; to repress, suppress; to repulse; to trample on again”) (from re- (prefix meaning ‘again’) + fouler (“to impress, stamp; to trample, walk on; to mistreat, oppress”) (ultimately from Medieval Latin fullare (“to make cloth denser and firmer by soaking, beating and pressing, to full”), from Latin fullō (“one who fulls cloth, fuller”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₃- (“to blow; to inflate, swell”)) + -ment (suffix forming nouns from verbs, usually denoting resulting actions or states).

Words from the same roots

Frenchrefoulement all →

Medieval Latinfullare all →

Latinfullō all →

fullfoildefilenon-refoulement

Proto-Indo-European*bʰleh₃- all →

flowerblessfoliodefilefoliateeffloresceflorescencefloriographynon-refoulement

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.