extranjero

Forms

extranjero (feminine extranjera, masculine plural extranjeros, feminine plural extranjeras)^[1] The spelling estrangero, with ⟨s⟩, was the usual one from 1396 and in Nebrija and Covarrubias, until the end of the 17th century;^[2] Alfonso de Palencia already wrote ⟨x⟩.^[2] Autoridades spells extrangero.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French estrangier (“foreign; foreigner”), formed from estrange (“strange, foreign”), which continues Latin extrāneus (“external, foreign”).^[2][4][5][1] The Latin adjective is formed from extrā (“outside”) with the suffix -āneus.^[6][1] Gómez de Silva and Wiktionary also cite a Vulgar Latin *extraneārius.^[7][1]

The Latin word is inherited in Spanish extraño.^[2] Portuguese estrangeiro is a borrowing of the same French word, and Italian straniero belongs with them.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas finds estrangero in a document of 1396, and extranjero in Alfonso de Palencia.^[2][4] DEMel files a form estrajeras from the Fuero de Coria (early 13th century) under the word.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades defined the adjective as belonging to another country, not native to the land where one is, and the noun as a person not from the land where he lives.^[3] Salvá in 1846 also recorded el extranjero for foreign countries, as in news “from abroad”.^[10]

Baralt in 1855 accepted el extranjero for “the foreigners”, as one says el inglés for the English, but rejected it for “foreign countries”.^[11] The Academy listed it in 1869, but García Icazbalceta noted that the next edition dropped it;^[12][13][2] Corominas says it was admitted only after 1899.^[12][13][2] Today it is the usual word for “abroad”: viajar al extranjero.^[5][14]

Timeline

• 1396 – first record, as estrangero.^[2][4]
• 1515 – estrangeros de los reinos de Castilla in Tierra Firme, the first record from the Americas.^[15]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades enters it as extrangero.^[3]
• 1855 – Baralt condemns el extranjero for “foreign countries”.^[11]
• 1869 – the Academy lists el extranjero “every nation that is not one's own”.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a country: not one's own; foreign.^[5][1]
2. Born in a foreign country; also as a noun, a foreigner.^[5][1]
3. Belonging to a foreign person: Habla con un ligero acento extranjero.^[5]
4. Of or relating to a foreign country or countries: la prensa extranjera.^[5][16]

Noun

1. (el extranjero) Foreign countries as a whole; abroad: Pasó dos años en el extranjero.^[5][1]

Word family

• extranjería
• extranjerismo
• extranjerizar

Related words

• extraño
• forastero
• French étranger
• Portuguese estrangeiro

Usage notes

Bénaben notes that extranjero is a person from another country, while someone from another region or town is a forastero.^[17]

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 Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 829
3. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 697
4. ^ a b c 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 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. extranjero
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. extrāneus
7. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 298
8. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 1458
9. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. extranjero
10. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 504
11. ^ a b Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 299
12. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 349
13. ^ a b García Icazbalceta, Joaquín (1899), Vocabulario de mexicanismos comprobado con ejemplos y comparado con los de otros países hispano-americanos, México: La Europea, p. s.v. extranjero
14. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. extranjero
15. ^ 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. estranjero
16. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. extranjero
17. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. extranjero