Popularized in the 1990s. From expatriate, replacing ex- by in-. Surface analysis is in- +‎ patriate.


inpatriate ‎(plural inpatriates)

  1. (business) An employee of a multinational company who is from a foreign country, but is transferred from a foreign subsidiary to the corporation’s headquarters.

Usage notesEdit

The term was probably meant to indicate the direction of the transfer, but has added a level of confusion to the definition of individuals working outside of their home country. Inpatriates, like all other types of expatriates, are not in but outside of their country of origin. Etymologically, if the term was meant to be antonymic to expatriate (to indicate the direction of the transfer), it would have to be impatriate (just as import is antonymic to export). The only difference within the broader definition of expatriation is that an expatriate is transferred from the corporation headquarters to a country where the corporation has a subsidiary, while an inpatriate is transferred from the foreign subsidiary to the country where the corporation has its headquarters.


inpatriate ‎(not comparable)

  1. Of or relating to people who are inpatriates, or to inpatriation.