a person who was born in, or is a citizen of, the same country as somebody else synonym countryman同胞;同国人 Word Originlate 16th cent.: from French compatriote, from late Latin compatriota (translating Greek sumpatriōtēs), from com- ‘together with’ + patriota ‘fellow countryman’, from Greek patriōtēs, from patrios ‘of one's fathers’, from patris ‘fatherland’.