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
From the same root
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
- (Late Latin) To make strange, estrange;[3][5] (reflexive) to withdraw oneself.[3][5]
- (Medieval Latin) To alienate (property).[1][6]
- (Medieval Latin) To exclude, shut out (from communion).[1]
- (Medieval Latin, philosophy, passive) To be external to a thing's essence.[7]
References
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
- ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
- ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
- ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
- ^ a b Lexicon mediae et infimae Latinitatis Polonorum (1953–), Kraków: Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN; electronic ed. elexicon.scriptores.pl
- ^ 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.
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