alien

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈeɪ.li.ən/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French alien (“strange, foreign”) and directly borrowed from Latin aliēnus (“belonging to another, foreign”),^[2][3][4][5] from alius (“other, another”) (see else),^[2][3][6] from PIE Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- (“beyond, other”).^[3] The verb, to transfer property, is from aliener, from aliēnāre (see alienate).^[4][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Strange, foreign: probably before 1300 in Kyng Alisaunder, about 1300 in Etymonline;^[2][3] the noun, a stranger or foreigner, before 1338 in Mannyng's Chronicle.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Of a foreign nation and allegiance, residing in a country not of one's birth, is from the mid-15th century.^[3][8] An alien priory (mid-15th century) was one owing obedience to a religious house abroad.^[3][8] Wholly different in nature or character, as alien to our ways, is from the 1670s,^[3][8] and dissimilar or opposed from 1382.^[8] A plant brought from another country and naturalized is from 1903.^[8] The meaning “not of this Earth” is recorded by 1920,^[3] and Word Origins dates beings from another planet to the 1920s;^[9] the science-fiction noun is from 1953 in Etymonline and the adjective from 1944 in the OED.^[3][8]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – strange, foreign.^[2][3]
• before 1338 – a stranger.^[2]
• 1382 – dissimilar, opposed.^[8]
• mid-15th century – a foreign resident.^[3][8]
• 1670s – different in nature.^[3]
• 1920 – not of this Earth.^[3]
• 1953 – a being from another planet.^[3]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Owing allegiance to another country; foreign.
2. Strange and unfamiliar.
3. Different in nature or opposed: cruelty was alien to her.
4. From another world; extraterrestrial.

Noun

1. A foreign resident of a country who is not a citizen.
2. A being from another planet.
3. An outsider; a plant or animal from another region.

Verb

1. (law) To transfer property to another; to alienate.

Word family

• alienly
• alienness
• alienage
• illegal alien
• resident alien

Related words

• alienate
• alienation
• alias
• alibi
• else
• inalienable

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press