alien (English)

Where does "alien" come from?

The English word 'alien' traces its origins back to the Proto-Indo-European root '*h₂el-' meaning 'other'[1][5]. This evolved into the Proto-Indo-European form '*h₂élyos'[1], which led to Latin 'alius' meaning 'other'[1]. From 'alius', the Romans formed 'aliēnus', meaning 'belonging to someone else' and later shifting to mean 'exotic' or 'foreign'[1][4]. The term passed into Old French as 'alien' before being adopted into Middle English 'alien'[1], eventually giving modern English the adjective used to describe foreign, unfamiliar, or extraterrestrial things.

Open questions

The Proto-Indo-European forms and intermediate Proto-Italic stages are linguistic reconstructions without direct written records. [3] [5] [6]

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), 'Outside, alien, foreign; from or relating to another nation.'
  - borrowed alien (Old French), 'alien; foreign; non-native'
    - inherited alienus (Latin), 'Of that which belongs to another person, place, or object—of another, alien, foreign'
      - suffix 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'
      - affix -enus (Latin), 'alternative form of -nus, used to form some distributive numerals.'

Ancestors

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

Cognates and doublets

else (English)

Related words

Sources

Updated October 2026

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