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stranger

Contents

EnglishEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Old French estrangier (“foreign, alien”), from estrange, from Latin extraneus (“foreign, external”) (whence also English estrange), from extra (“outside of”). Displaced native Old English eldritch. Cognate with French étranger (“foreigner, stranger”) and Spanish extranjero (“foreigner”).

PronunciationEdit

AdjectiveEdit

stranger

  1. comparative form of strange: more strange
    • Truth is stranger than fiction. (English proverb)

Related termsEdit

NounEdit

stranger (plural strangers)

  1. A person whom one does not know; a person who is neither a friend nor an acquaintance.
    That gentleman is a stranger to me.  Children are taught not to talk to strangers.
    • 1892, Walter Besant, chapter III, in The Ivory Gate: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], OCLC 16832619:
      In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass. […] Strangers might enter the room, but they were made to feel that they were there on sufferance: they were received with distance and suspicion.
  2. An outsider or foreigner.
  3. A newcomer.
    • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 7, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
      […] St. Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London. Close-packed, crushed by the buttressed height of the railway viaduct, rendered airless by huge walls of factories, it at once banished lively interest from a stranger's mind and left only a dull oppression of the spirit.
  4. (humorous) One who has not been seen for a long time.
    Hello, stranger!
  5. (obsolete) One not belonging to the family or household; a guest; a visitor.
    • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton
      To honour and receive / Our heavenly stranger.
  6. (law) One not privy or party to an act, contract, or title; a mere intruder or intermeddler; one who interferes without right.
    Actual possession of land gives a good title against a stranger having no title.

SynonymsEdit

AntonymsEdit

Derived termsEdit

TranslationsEdit

outsider or foreigner — See also translations at foreigner
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

See alsoEdit

VerbEdit

stranger (third-person singular simple present strangers, present participle strangering, simple past and past participle strangered)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To estrange; to alienate.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

AnagramsEdit

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