extraño

Forms

extraño (feminine extraña, masculine plural extraños, feminine plural extrañas, superlative extrañísimo)^[1] Old Spanish wrote estraño (also estranno, estranyo), and the spelling with ⟨s⟩ remained general until the end of the 17th century.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin extrāneus (“external; not of the family; foreign”); Old Spanish estraño is its form in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[2][4][5][1] Corominas stresses that it is a popular, inherited word, so that only the spelling with ⟨s⟩ is justified.^[2] Wiktionary explains the modern ⟨x⟩ as the /k/ restored after the Latin form.^[1] The Latin adjective is formed from extrā (“outside”) with the suffix -āneus.^[6][1]

The same Latin word is Portuguese estranho, Galician estraño, Asturian estrañu, Catalan estrany, Occitan estranh, French étrange and Italian strano.^[7][8][9] The derivative extranjero is a borrowing of Old French estrangier, a derivative of estrange, the French form of the same word.^[2][4] Wiktionary compares English extraneous and English strange.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140; the Tentative Dictionary dates it about 1200, from the manuscript of 1207) the adjective means “foreign”.^[2][3] The related verb is older: a charter of 1091 in Oelschläger's list has the Latinised extraniasset in the sense “banish”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish already used the adjective for what is rare or extraordinary, besides “foreign” and, as a noun, “foreigner”.^[3] The prose of Alfonso X has it for people outside the nation or group, for what is alien to a thing's nature, and for a rare property of a stone.^[10] In the classical language it often meant “extraordinary”, sometimes even “excellent” (in Lope), and Corominas points to an intensifying use in medieval texts.^[2]

Autoridades gives the senses “foreign, belonging to another kingdom, house or family”, “rare, singular”, “eccentric, ill-tempered” and “ill at ease in a company”, quoting the first chapter of the Quijote, where the hero comes upon the strangest thought a madman ever had.^[11][12] From 1817 the Academy records the phrase serle extraña una cosa a alguno “to be unused to something, or unsuited to it”.^[13] The noun “a sudden, unexpected movement”, as of a horse that shies, is modern.^[5][14]

In the Americas the word is recorded from 1525, in Costa Rica, in the sense “foreign, from outside”.^[15] In the Dominican Republic it describes a fighting cock that refuses to fight.^[16]

Timeline

• 1091 – a Latin charter has extraniasset “banished”, the first trace of the verb extrañar.^[2][4]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has estraño “foreign”.^[2][4]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario calls a property of a stone mucho estranna, “very unusual”.^[10]
• 1396 – first record of extranjero, spelt estrangero.^[2][4]
• 1525 – first record from the Americas, in Costa Rica.^[15]
• 1570 – first record of extrañeza.^[4]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades writes the word with ⟨x⟩ and quotes the Quijote.^[11]
• 1732 – first record of extrañamiento.^[4]
• 1817 – the Academy records serle extraña una cosa a alguno.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of another nation, family or profession; not one's own, foreign; as a noun, a stranger: No abras la puerta a extraños.^[5][1][14]
2. strange, odd, unusual: Anoche oímos un ruido extraño.^[5][1]
3. Alien to the nature of a thing it forms part of: un cuerpo extraño.^[5][1]
4. Having no part in something: Se mantuvo extraño a la disputa.^[5]

Noun

1. A sudden, unexpected movement, as of a horse that shies or a car that swerves: hacer un extraño.^[5][14]

Word family

• extrañeza
• extrañar
• extrañamiento
• extraña

Related words

• extranjero
• extra
• Latin extrāneus
• Portuguese estranho
• English strange

Usage notes

The feminine noun extraña names a Chinese plant of the daisy family grown for its many-coloured flowers.^[5][2] The verb extrañar means “find strange” and, especially in the Americas, “miss (someone or something)”.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 829
3. ^ a b c Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 244
4. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. extraño
5. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. extraño
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. extrāneus
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. extraneus
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. extraneus
9. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 1459
10. ^ 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. extraño
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 698
12. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 515
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 406
14. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. extraño
15. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. estraño
16. ^ Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. extraño