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”).
PronunciationEdit
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈstɹeɪndʒɚ/
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈstɹeɪndʒə/
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Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -eɪndʒə(ɹ)
AdjectiveEdit
stranger
- comparative form of strange: more strange
- Truth is stranger than fiction. (English proverb)
Derived termsEdit
- See strange
Related termsEdit
- See strange
NounEdit
stranger (plural strangers)
- 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.
- 1893, Walter Besant, The Ivory Gate, chapter III:
- 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.
- An outsider or foreigner.
- William Shakespeare (c.1564–1616)
- I am a most poor woman and a stranger, / Born out of your dominions.
- George Granville (1666-1735)
- Melons on beds of ice are taught to bear, / And strangers to the sun yet ripen here.
- 1961, Robert A. Heinlein: “Stranger in a Strange Land”
- William Shakespeare (c.1564–1616)
- A newcomer.
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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.
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- (humorous) One who has not been seen for a long time.
- Hello, stranger!
- (obsolete) One not belonging to the family or household; a guest; a visitor.
- John Milton (1608-1674)
- To honour and receive / Our heavenly stranger.
- John Milton (1608-1674)
- (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
- (person whom one does not know):
- (outsider, foreigner): alien, foreigner, foreign national, non-national/nonnational, non-resident/nonresident, outsider
- (newcomer): newbie, newcomer
AntonymsEdit
- (person whom one does not know): acquaintance, friend
- (outsider, foreigner): compatriot, countryman, fellow citizen, fellow countryman, national, resident
- (newcomer):
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
person whom one does not know
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foreigner
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newcomer
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- 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 Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked
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See alsoEdit
VerbEdit
stranger (third-person singular simple present strangers, present participle strangering, simple past and past participle strangered)
- (obsolete, transitive) To estrange; to alienate.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)