ajeno

Forms

ajeno (feminine ajena, masculine plural ajenos, feminine plural ajenas)^[1] Old Spanish wrote ageno, agena, aieno, axeno and ajeno; the spelling with ⟨g⟩ was still common in the 18th century.^[2][3][4] The forms with ⟨y⟩ (ayeno, ayén, ayinu) are Asturian and Leonese, and those with a palatal ⟨ll⟩ (aleno, alleno, aylleno) Navarrese and Aragonese.^[3][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish ageno, inherited from Latin aliēnus (“belonging to another; foreign”), a derivative of alius (“other”).^[6][7][8][1] Corominas notes that the Latin adjective survives as a popular word only in Spanish, Portuguese and Sardinian.^[6] The same word is Portuguese alheio, Galician alleo and Asturian ayenu.^[9][5][10] The Old Catalan form allè occurs only once, in a 13th-century text.^[6]

The Latin group /lj/ normally gave the Spanish sound written ⟨j⟩, so the popular verb enajenar stands beside the learned alienar, a term of law and psychiatry.^[11][7]

The base of the Latin adjective goes back to Proto-Italic *al-jo- and Proto-Indo-European *h₂élyos (“other”), and its cognates include Ancient Greek ἄλλος (állos, “other”).^[12][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140) has the word in the sense “belonging to another”: En prestan les delo ageno, que non les cumple lo suyo “they lend to them from what belongs to others, since their own is not enough”.^[13][14] The same poem uses tierra agena for a foreign land.^[14] Corominas also cites a Mozarabic form alyeno in an anonymous text of the 11th or 12th century.^[6]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word meant both what belongs to someone else and what is foreign or far from home: Alfonso X's Judizios (1254?) speaks of logares agenos, places away from one's own land, and the Estoria de España uses it for what is improper or unbecoming.^[15]

Covarrubias (1611) defines it as what belongs to another and not to us, or what does not befit a person, and adds enajenar “to give away what is one's own” and enagenado “out of one's senses”.^[16] The Diccionario de Autoridades added the sense “unaware, ignorant of something”, and asked for the spelling with ⟨j⟩ because of the Latin etymon alienus, though ⟨g⟩ was then very common.^[4] From 1843 to 1899 the Academy also defined it as “deprived of the use of reason”, a sense that the present dictionary no longer lists.^[17][18][8]

Spanish has always hesitated between de and a after the adjective (ajeno de, ajeno a), and Cuervo gave the construction a long article.^[6][19] Today a is the usual preposition and de the less frequent one.^[20] Set phrases built on the sense “someone else's” include amigo de lo ajeno, vergüenza ajena and escarmentar en cabeza ajena.^[1][20]

Timeline

• 11th–12th century – the Mozarabic form alyeno in an anonymous text.^[6]
• 1107 – the derived verb anajenar in a document of Oña.^[6]
• c. 1129 – the Aragonese form aleno in the Fuero de Medinaceli.^[3]
• c. 1140 – ageno in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[13][7]
• 1254 – Alfonso X's Judizios uses agenos for distant places.^[15]
• c. 1260 – the Leonese form ayeno in the Fuero Juzgo.^[3]
• 1611 – Covarrubias enters the word under the spelling ageno.^[16]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades prescribes the spelling ajeno.^[4]
• 1843 – the Academy's dictionary lists the sense “deprived of reason”.^[17]
• 1886–1893 – Cuervo's dictionary traces its construction with de and a.^[19]
• 1899 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin alienus.^[18]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Belonging to another person; someone else's: Nunca leas cartas ajenas.^[8][1]
2. Of another kind or condition; different.^[8]
3. Not belonging or corresponding to something; foreign or extraneous to it, usually with a: Ese tema es ajeno a mi oficio.^[8][20]
4. Unaware of something, or not forewarned of what is going to happen: Los vecinos dormían, ajenos al incendio.^[8][20]
5. Distant from or free of something, usually with de.^[8][20]
6. Taking no part in something: La empresa se declara ajena a esos pagos.^[20]

Word family

• enajenar
• ajenidad

Related words

• inalienable
• alienación
• Portuguese alheio
• Latin alienus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. ajeno
3. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. ajeno
4. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. ajeno
5. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 405
6. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 95
7. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ajeno
8. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. ajeno
9. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 182
10. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. ayenu
11. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. ajeno
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ a b Alonso Pedraz, Martín (1986), Diccionario medieval español: desde las Glosas Emilianenses y Silenses (s. X) hasta el siglo XV, 2 vols., Salamanca: Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, p. 194
14. ^ a b Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 17
15. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. ajeno
16. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 76
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 24
18. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 34
19. ^ a b Cuervo, Rufino José (1886–1893), Diccionario de construcción y régimen de la lengua castellana, vols. I–II (A–D), París: A. Roger y F. Chernoviz, p. 1, 298
20. ^ a b c d e f Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ajeno