Dictionaries › Middle English

alien

Pronunciation: /aːliˈɛːn/

“alien” is a Middle English word. Its 9 meanings in English:

noun

  1. An outsider or foreign person, especially if resident in one's nation.
  2. One who is alien in some other way (e.g. religion, family)
  3. An unlawful occupier or possessor of land.

adjective

  1. Outside, alien, foreign; from or relating to another nation.
  2. Religiously outside; heretical, erring; of false religion or morals.
  3. Distant, isolated, secure, away (from something)
  4. Under the authority of other nation's religious institutions.
  5. Not relating to or of oneself; not natural (to one's body).
  6. Bizarre, weird, exotic.

Etymology

From Old French alien, aliene, from Latin aliēnus. Some forms (chiefly nominal) show assimilation to the suffix -ant.

More Middle English words

About this dictionary

The Middle English dictionary on Glottosphere has 8,967 entries with a page. Browse the Middle English dictionary.

Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.