Etymologically
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stranger

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 16 October 2026 at 12:39. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈstɹeɪnd͡ʒə(ɹ)/ (UK); /ˈstɹeɪnd͡ʒɚ/ (US)[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English straunger, borrowed from Old French estrangier (“foreigner”), with loss of the first syllable,[2][3][4] from estrange (“strange, foreign”), from Latin extraneus (“external, foreign”) (see strange);[2][4][5] Etymonline allows that it may also be formed in English from strange and -er.[2] Latin used extraneus itself as a noun for a stranger.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A foreigner, one who comes from another country: 1375 in the OED,[6] the late 14th century in Etymonline.[2]

Semantic evolution

An unknown person, someone not seen before, is from about 1385,[6] and a guest or visitor, as opposed to the members of a household, from about 1400.[6] A person who is not a member of a nation, group or family is from the 15th century.[2] The sense, someone who has stopped visiting, as in don't be a stranger, is from the 1520s,[2] and stranger as a form of address to an unknown person is rural American from 1817.[2] A newborn baby was playfully called a little stranger from the 17th century.[6] Etymonline notes that the noun never took the sense odd of the adjective strange.[2] In northern Yorkshire a stranger was also a through-stone in a wall.[7]

Timeline

  • 1375 – a foreigner.[6]
  • c. 1385 – an unknown person.[6]
  • c. 1400 – a guest or visitor.[6]
  • 1520s – one who has stopped visiting.[2]
  • 1817 – a form of address.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A person one does not know.
  2. A newcomer to a place; a foreigner or outsider.
  3. A person unfamiliar with something: no stranger to hardship.
  4. (law) A person who is not a party to an agreement or action.

Word family

  • strangerlike

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)