alien (English)

Where does "alien" come from?

The word alien traces its roots back to the Proto-Indo-European *h₂élyos, meaning "other," a common ancestor that also gave us the English word "else." It evolved into the Latin aliēnus, which described things belonging to someone else, before passing through Old French into Middle English as a term for a foreigner. Today, its meaning has expanded from simply denoting someone from a different land to encompassing anything strange, unfamiliar, or even extraterrestrial.

Full etymology tree

• alien (English), 'Not belonging to the same country, land, or government, or to the citizens or subjects thereof; foreign.'
  • inherited alien (Middle English), 'An outsider or foreign person, especially if resident in one's nation.'
    • borrowed alien (Old French), 'alien; foreign; non-native'
      • inherited aliēnus (Latin), 'Of that which belongs to another person, place, or object—of another, alien, foreign'
        • compound alius (Latin), 'other, another, any other'
          • inherited *aljos (Proto-Italic), 'another'
            • inherited *h₂élyos (Proto-Indo-European), 'other, another'
              • derived *h₂el- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to grow, nourish'
        • compound -ēnus (Latin), 'alternative form of -nus, used to form some distributive numerals.'
          • derived -nus (Latin), 'adjective-forming suffix'
            • inherited *-nos (Proto-Italic), 'Creates verbal adjectives from verb stems.'
              • inherited *-nós (Proto-Indo-European), 'Creates verbal adjectives from roots.'
          • borrowed -ηνός (-ēnós) (Ancient Greek), 'Added to place name to form an adjective: -ian, -ese'

Direct ancestors

• alien (Middle English)
• alien (Old French)
• alienus (Latin)
• alius (Latin)
• h₂élyos (Proto-Indo-European)
• else (English)

Updated May 2026

Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris