estraneo

Forms

estraneo (feminine estranea, masculine plural estranei, feminine plural estranee)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian estranio, Old Italian estrano, Old Italian istraneo and Old Italian stranio.^[2][3][4] Estranio remained in poetry.^[5][6]

Etymology

It is learned: it is borrowed from Latin extrāneus (“external, foreign, strange”).^{[7][8][9][10][1]} The Latin adjective is formed from extrā (“outside”) with the suffix -āneus,^[11][1] and it was the opposite of intrāneus.^[12] The adverb itself is contracted from the ablative of exter (“outer”).^[1]

The same Latin word, inherited through popular speech, gave Italian strano, so the learned and the inherited word are doublets.^[1][4][10] The inherited outcomes elsewhere are French étrange, Catalan estrany, Spanish extraño and Portuguese estranho.^[13][14][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Pisan translation of Albertano's treatises (1287–1288), where the word describes someone from another country or of another origin than the speaker.^[2] DELI dates the sense “having no connection with the people or things in question” to Z. Bencivenni (before 1313), and the noun “a stranger” to the 14th-century Bible translation.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the word for what belongs to another country, another circle or institution, or another family, and for what differs in form or nature.^[2] The older senses “foreign” and “strange, unusual” lived on in literature, mostly in the forms estranio and estrano: Ariosto's il cavalliero estrano, Tasso's estranio lido “a foreign shore”.^[15][6][3]

Tommaseo noted that one can be a foreigner (straniero) without being estraneo to Italy, that is, unconnected with it.^[16] In modern use the word means “unconnected, unrelated”, “unfamiliar”, and, as a noun, a person outside a family or group; in medicine corpo estraneo is a foreign body.^[9][5][17] Derivatives are recent: estraneità (1850) and estraniarsi (before 1930, transitive estraniare 1918, in Gramsci).^[7][8]

Timeline

• 1287–1288 – A Pisan translation of Albertano's treatises has the first record.^[2]
• Before 1313 – Z. Bencivenni uses it for “unconnected”.^[7]
• Late 14th century – The noun “stranger” appears in the Bible translation.^[7]
• 1850 – Estraneità is recorded.^[7]
• 1918 – Gramsci uses the transitive estraniare.^[7][8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Having no connection with someone or something; extraneous, unrelated (+ a): un dettaglio estraneo al racconto.^[9][5][4]
2. Unfamiliar, unknown: una città estranea.^[9][5][17]
3. Not involved, taking no part; detached, indifferent: sentirsi estraneo a tutto.^[9][5][4]
4. (medicine) corpo estraneo: a foreign body that has entered the organism.^[9][17][3]
5. (literary, archaic) foreign; strange, unusual.^[9][5][3]

Noun

1. A stranger, an outsider; a person who is not part of a family or group: Gli estranei non possono entrare.^[9][5][1]

Word family

• estraneità
• estraniarsi
• estraniare
• estraniazione
• estraneamente

Related words

• strano
• straniero
• extra-
• Latin extrāneus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
7. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
10. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1550
13. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
14. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
15. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
16. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
17. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana