straniero

Forms

straniero (feminine straniera, masculine plural stranieri, feminine plural straniere)^[1] Older forms include straniere, still recorded as archaic, and strainero, stranero, strangero and strangiero.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French estrangier (“foreigner”) and Old Occitan estranger, derivatives of estrange (“foreign, strange”) (modern French étranger and French étrange).^[5][6][7][8] The French adjective continues Latin extrāneus (“external, foreign”), from extrā (“outside”) and the suffix -āneus.^[7][9][1] The French noun also gave Spanish extranjero and Portuguese estrangeiro.^[6][10][11]

Wiktionary allows a direct derivation from the Latin adjective through an unrecorded Vulgar Latin *extraneārius, which Körting had reconstructed, but thinks the French model more likely.^[1][12] Treccani derives it from the Latin word and compares the French one.^[13] Devoto saw a crossing of the French word with the native stranio.^[14] The same Latin adjective gave Italian strano, and as a learned word estraneo.^[6][10][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Onesto da Bologna, before 1303, uses the word in the sense “cruel”.^[5] The sense “of foreign citizenship” is first recorded about 1350, in the Italian translation of Pietro de' Crescenzi's treatise on agriculture.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In the 14th century the word meant a stranger in general, someone born elsewhere: an anonymous Genoese poet speaks of crowds of “foreign people”, and the translation of Cassian says “I am a stranger in the earth and a pilgrim”.^[2] It could also mean “far off”, “alien” or “strange”, senses that survive only in literature and the old language.^[11][7][8]

The sense “belonging to another nation”, of languages, customs and peoples, is recorded before 1595 in Torquato Tasso.^[5] The word later took on the sense “enemy, foreign invader”, recorded in the Milanese press in 1814, and in the singular lo straniero became a collective name for the occupying power.^[5][7][3] Leopardi's line quando la terra / mi fia straniera valle uses the literary sense “estranged, alien”.^[7][3]

Timeline

• Before 1303 – Onesto da Bologna uses straniero in the sense “cruel”.^[5]
• c. 1350 – The translation of Pietro de' Crescenzi uses it of a person of foreign nationality.^[5]
• Before 1595 – Torquato Tasso uses it for “belonging to another nation”.^[5]
• 1814 – The Milanese press uses it for a foreign enemy and invader.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. foreign, of or from another country: Studia due lingue straniere.^[7][3][8]
2. Relating to an enemy or occupying nation: le truppe straniere.^[7][3][4]
3. (literary) Alien, estranged, not one's own: sentirsi straniero a casa propria.^[7][8][13]
4. (archaic) Strange, unusual.^[7][3][8]

Noun

1. A foreigner, a citizen of another country: Molti stranieri vivono in questo quartiere.^[7][3][4]
2. (singular, collective) The foreign enemy, the invader: resistere allo straniero.^[7][3][8]

Word family

• straniera
• stranierismo
• straniereggiare

Related words

• strano
• estraneo
• stranio
• French étranger

Usage notes

The Legione straniera is the French Foreign Legion.^[7][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 20, 284
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
12. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
13. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
14. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli