foreign
UK /ˈfɒɹɪn/ · US /ˈfɔɹɪn/ adjective, noun
Forms foreigns forane forraine
- adjective Located outside a country or place, especially one's own. “foreign markets; foreign soil”
- adjective Originating from, characteristic of, belonging to, or being a citizen of a country or place other than the one under discussion. “foreign car; foreign word; foreign citizen; foreign trade”
- adjective Relating to a different nation. “foreign policy; foreign navies”
- adjective Not characteristic of or naturally taken in by an organism or system. “foreign body; foreign substance; foreign gene; foreign species”
- adjective (with to, formerly with from) Alien; strange; uncharacteristic. “It was completely foreign to their way of thinking.”
- adjective (obsolete) Held at a distance; excluded; exiled.
- adjective (US, Canada, law) From a different legal jurisdiction (state, province), even if within the same country.
- adjective Belonging to a different organization, company etc. “My bank charges me $2.50 every time I use a foreign ATM.”
- noun (now informal) A foreigner: a person from another country.
- noun (obsolete) An outsider: a person from another place or group.
- noun (obsolete) A non-guildmember.
- noun (obsolete) A foreign ship.
- noun (slang) A foreign whip, a car produced abroad.
- noun (obsolete) An outhouse; an outdoor toilet.
- noun (now dialect) An area of a community that lies outside the legal town or parish limits.
- noun (obsolete, usually in the plural) An area of a monastery outside its legal limits or serving as an outer court.
Synonyms
alien fremd overseas international extraneous acquired additional adventitious ascititious intrusive outlandish strange supplemental tramontane backhouse backside bog boggard boghouse carsey
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English foreyn, forein, from Old French forain, from Vulgar Latin *forānus (“outsider, outlander”), from Latin forās (“outside, outdoors”) or forīs (“outside, outdoors”).
Displaced native Old English elþēodiġ (“foreign”) and now-dialectal English fremd, from Old English fremde (“strange, foreign”).
The silent -g- added perhaps by analogy with reign (compare also sovereign which was similarly altered).
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Outside; extraneous; separated; alien; as, a foreign country; a foreign government. "Foreign worlds." Milton.
- adjective Not native or belonging to a certain country; born in or belonging to another country, nation, sovereignty, or locality; as, a foreign language; foreign fruits. "Domestic and foreign writers." Atterbury.
Etymology [OE. forein, F. forain, LL. foraneus, fr. L. foras, foris, out of doors, abroad, without; akin to fores doors, and E. door. See Door, and cf. Foreclose, Forfeit, Forest, Forum.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “foreign”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details