/rant

Expatriate could be the new "irregardless?" Listening to the news, they were talking about "expat" voters. Then I thought to myself, "What? Expatriates can vote? Why can they vote if they're not citizens anymore!?" Then I looked up expatriate. One of the definitions supports the use on the news, but the word has 3 definitions in the dictionary. The remaining two definitions suggest that the person was exiled or gave up citizenship. The connotation of this term, to me, meant that the person was expatriated, that is to mean kicked out of their country, or renounced their citizenship. When did this term get diluted to mean ANYONE living outside thier country of origin? I mean... we have terms like foreign national, foreign worker, and (enter nationality here)-living-abroad. Language is losing it's nuance because these terms are not as quick or sexy sounding as "eXpat!"

/endrant