stranger English · revision 6797

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=1375|origins=la extraneus}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /ˈstɹeɪnd͡ʒə(ɹ)/ ''(UK)''; /ˈstɹeɪnd͡ʒɚ/ ''(US)''^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is Middle English straunger, [[bor|fro|estrangier|t=foreigner]], with loss of the first syllable,^(Etymonline)^(MWU 2024)^(SOED 2002) from [[m|fro|estrange|t=strange, foreign]], from [[la|extraneus|t=external, foreign]] (see [[strange]]);^(Etymonline)^(SOED 2002)^(NODE 1998) Etymonline allows that it may also be formed in English from strange and [[-er]].^(Etymonline) Latin used extraneus itself as a noun for a stranger.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ A foreigner, one who comes from another country: 1375 in the OED,^(OED 1989) the late 14th century in Etymonline.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ An unknown person, someone not seen before, is from about 1385,^(OED 1989) and a guest or visitor, as opposed to the members of a household, from about 1400.^(OED 1989) A person who is not a member of a nation, group or family is from the 15th century.^(Etymonline) The sense, someone who has stopped visiting, as in ''don't be a stranger'', is from the 1520s,^(Etymonline) and ''stranger'' as a form of address to an unknown person is rural American from 1817.^(Etymonline) A newborn baby was playfully called a ''little stranger'' from the 17th century.^(OED 1989) Etymonline notes that the noun never took the sense ''odd'' of the adjective [[strange]].^(Etymonline) In northern Yorkshire a stranger was also a through-stone in a wall.^(Wright 1898)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1375 – a foreigner.^(OED 1989)

+ * c. 1385 – an unknown person.^(OED 1989)

+ * c. 1400 – a guest or visitor.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1520s – one who has stopped visiting.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1817 – a form of address.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A person one does not know.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # A newcomer to a place; a [[foreigner]] or [[outsider]].^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # A person unfamiliar with something: ''no stranger to hardship''.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # ''(law)'' A person who is not a party to an [[agreement]] or action.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[strangerlike]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[strange]]

+ * [[estrange]]

+ * [[extraneous]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}