Etymologically

Etymology and origin of the Latin word extraneo

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 485–c. 580 AD, Cassiodorus
Ultimate origin
Latin extrāneus
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin extraneus
French étrange
Italian strano
Latin extraneo
From the same root
French étranger ← étrange

Forms

extrāneō (present infinitive extrāneāre, perfect active extrāneāvī, supine extrāneātum); first conjugation[1][2] Medieval texts also have ⟨extranio⟩.[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin extrāneus (“external, foreign; a stranger”).[3][2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis & Short and Georges cite it from Apuleius for disowning a daughter, but there it is an editor's conjecture that the TLL thinks hardly right.[4][2][3] Its first certain author is Cassiodorus, in his notes on the Epistles: the Holy Spirit dwells in us when the power of the devil makes itself a stranger to us, and Peter teaches Christians to abstain from fleshly desires so as to estrange them from love of the world.[3][5]

Semantic evolution

Medieval writers used it for “to estrange, alienate”: Sigebert of Gembloux records that in 1086 tame birds left the houses and grew wild,[1] and a document of 1208 forbids alienating a purchase from the church.[1] A papal letter uses the participle of heretics shut out from communion.[1] Niermeyer glosses it “to alienate”,[6] and later logicians in Poland used the passive for being external to a thing's essence.[7] The TLL lists Romance descendants, among them Italian stranare, Old Occitan estranhar and Portuguese estranhar.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 485–c. 580 AD – Cassiodorus uses it of estranging oneself or others.[3][8]
  • 1086 – Sigebert of Gembloux uses it of tame birds growing wild.[1]
  • 1208 – A document forbids alienating a purchase.[1]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (Late Latin) To make strange, estrange;[3][5] (reflexive) to withdraw oneself.[3][5]
  2. (Medieval Latin) To alienate (property).[1][6]
  3. (Medieval Latin) To exclude, shut out (from communion).[1]
  4. (Medieval Latin, philosophy, passive) To be external to a thing's essence.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  2. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  7. ^ a b Lexicon mediae et infimae Latinitatis Polonorum (1953–), Kraków: Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN; electronic ed. elexicon.scriptores.pl
  8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry

“Extraneo.” Etymologically, 24 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/extraneo. Accessed 24 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·