alieno

Forms

alieno (feminine aliena, masculine plural alieni, feminine plural aliene)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin aliēnus (“belonging to others, foreign”), a learned word, from alius (“other”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The sense “extraterrestrial” is a recent loan from English alien: the LEI calls it a borrowing and Devoto–Oli a calque, dated 1978.^[6][7][5]

The Latin adjective survives as a popular word only in Spanish ajeno, Portuguese alheio, Galician alleo and Sardinian andzénu in Logudorese.^[6][8] Learned forms like the Italian one are Old French alien (“foreign”) (11th century), Catalan aliè (1370) and Spanish alieno.^[6][9]

The Latin pronoun continues Proto-Italic *aljo- and Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-io- (“another”), the source also of Ancient Greek ἄλλος (állos), Gothic 𐌰𐌻𐌾𐌹𐍃 (aljis) and Old Irish aile.^[10][3] The suffix of the Latin adjective is unclear: Avviamento explains it as -īnus dissimilated to -ēnus after the stem vowel, which de Vaan finds unlikely; he cites Nussbaum's proposal of a form built on a locative meaning “elsewhere”.^[10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in the Novellino, at the end of the 13th century, with the sense “belonging to someone else”.^[2] The TLIO and the LEI give an earlier example from Panuccio del Bagno of Pisa (before 1276), who speaks of an adverse, self-defeating provedensa aliena.^[12][6]

Semantic evolution

The sense “contrary, hostile” is recorded in Domenico Cavalca (before 1342),^[2] and, from it grew the modern construction alieno da, “averse to, shunning”: Lorenzo de' Medici writes that he had long been assai alieno da simili feste, far from such festivities.^[13][6] The older sense “someone else's, foreign” passed into literary use;^[4][5] Machiavelli speaks of making war with one's own weapons e non con le aliene.^[4][5] In Sicilian, alienu came to mean “absent-minded, indifferent”.^[6]

The science-fiction sense, a being from another planet, came from English in the late 20th century;^[7][6] GDLI quotes Tullio Kezich in La Repubblica (1984): Chi ha detto che gli alieni sono grandi come uomini? (“Who said aliens are as big as people?”).^[14] From it comes the figurative use for a person who feels out of place.^[7][15]

Timeline

• Before 1276 – Panuccio del Bagno uses aliena “adverse”.^[6]
• Late 13th century – The Novellino uses alieno “belonging to others”.^[2]
• Before 1342 – Domenico Cavalca uses the sense “contrary, averse”.^[2]
• Before 1375 – Boccaccio uses alienare “to transfer a right”.^[2]
• 1865 – Tommaseo records non essere alieno dal fare qualcosa “to be inclined to do something”.^[6]
• 1978 – The sense “extraterrestrial” is recorded.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. averse to, shunning (with da): È un uomo alieno dalle polemiche.^[4][7][15]
2. (literary) Belonging to others; foreign, extraneous.^[4][7][5]
3. Extraterrestrial.^[4][5]

Noun

1. An alien, a being from another planet, in science fiction.^[7][15][16]
2. (figurative) A person who stands out as different or feels a stranger in a group: In quella famiglia mi sento un alieno.^[7][15][16]

Word family

• alienabile
• alienare
• alienato
• alienazione
• alienista
• alienità

Related words

• Latin aliēnus
• English alien

Usage notes

Non essere alieno da means “to be inclined to, not to rule out”: the phrase is literary.^[16][7] In ecology the Italian Wiktionary records specie aliena for a species introduced by humans outside its native range.^[17]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 2, 62
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
8. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 123
9. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
10. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
13. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 1, 306
14. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. Supplemento 2009
15. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
17. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org