Pilgrim

pilgrim

c.1200, pilegrim , from O.Fr. pelegrin  (11c.), from L. peregrinus  "foreigner," from peregre  (adv.) "from abroad," from per-  "beyond" + agri , locative case of ager  "country" (see acre). Change of first -r-  to -l-  in Romance languages by dissimilation. Pilgrim Fathers  "English Puritans who founded Plymouth colony" is first found 1799 (they called themselves Pilgrims  from c.1630, in allusion to Heb. xi.13).

 

one of the band of Puritans who founded the colony of Plymouth, Mass., in 1620. 

 

Pilgrim  One of the English Separatists who founded the colony of Plymouth in New England in 1620.