Entries linking to evacuee
early 15c., in medicine (Chauliac), evacuaten "expel (humors) from the body" (transitive), from Latin evacuatus, past participle of evacuare "to empty, make void, nullify," used by Pliny in reference to the bowels, used figuratively in Late Latin for "clear out;" from assimilated form of ex- "out" (see ex-) + vacuus "empty" (according to Watkins, from PIE *wak-, extended form of root *eue- "to leave, abandon, give out").
It replaced Middle English evacuen "draw off or expel (humors) from the body" (c. 1400). The military meaning "depart from, quit (a place)" is by 1710. The meaning "remove inhabitants to safer ground" is from 1934. The intransitive sense is attested from 1630s; of civilian persons by 1900. Related: Evacuated; evacuating.
word-forming element in legal English (and in imitation of it), representing the Anglo-French -é ending of past participles used as nouns (compare -y (3)). As these sometimes were coupled with agent nouns in -or, the two suffixes came to be used as a pair to denote the initiator and the recipient of an action.
Not to be confused with the French -ée that is a feminine noun ending (as in fiancée), which is from Latin -ata.
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