refugee, IDP, evacuee

[Michael Quinion]

Hollis Barnhart wrote:

> I apologize if this has been mentioned before (or if it is
> irrelevant); however, based on this headline _School bus comandeered
> by renegade refugees first to arrive at Astrodome_   one  might
> construe that evacuees are acted upon; refugees act.

I'd concur with that, and indeed have said so in my own piece about
the controversy in World Wide Words today. Dictionary definitions
tend to be along the lines of "a person moved from a place of danger
to somewhere safer" (from the Oxford Dictionary of English) - note
the passive and the implication that evacuation is organised.


--
Michael Quinion
Editor, World Wide Words
E-mail: wordseditor at worldwidewords.org
Web: http://www.worldwidewords.org