▪ I. alien, a. and n.
(ˈeɪlɪən)
Forms: 4–6 alyen(e, 5 aliaunte, 5–6 aliente, alyaunte, 6 aleyn, alyon, aleaunt, 6–7 aliant, -aunt, -ent, 7 alliant, 4–8 aliene, 4– alien.
[a. OFr. alien, allien:—L. aliēn-us of or belonging to another person or place; f. ali-us other, another + -ēn-us: see -en, -ene. The -t so commonly added, esp. to the n., was due to form-assoc. with ppl. words in -nt, -nd, in which there was an organic tendency to drop the final mute (cf. gyane for giant, etc.), in the literary struggle against which, t was added where it had not been dropped; cf. tyrant, pageant, ancient.]
A. adj.
1. gen. Belonging to another person, place, or family; strange, foreign, not of one's own.
| 1340 Hampole Prose Tr. 45 Ffra þe souerayne joy and gastely swetnes in þe blysse of Heuene he sall be aliene. 1382 Wyclif Gen. xxxv. 2 Doth awey alyen goddis, that ben in the mydil of ȝow. c 1600 Shakes. Sonn. lxxviii, Euery Alien pen hath got my vse. 1697 Dryden Virg. Eclog. viii. 62 In Desarts thou wert bred..Alien of Birth. 1791 Cowper Iliad xvi. 75 As I had been Some alien wretch. 1820 Keats Ode to Night. 67 Ruth..stood in tears amid the alien corn. 1880 Morris Ode of Life 86 To watch by alien sick-beds. |
2. a. esp. Of a foreign nation and allegiance.
| c 1450 J. Russell Bk. Nurture in Babees Bk. 191 Take hede he must to aliene commers straungeres, and to straungers of þis land. 1503 Act 19 Hen. VII, xxxiii. 11 That no spirituell person ne straunger Aleyn be chargeable. 1809 Tomlins Law Dict. s.v., Obsolete statutes..prohibiting alien artificers to work for themselves in this kingdom. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 185 Disastrous war and alien domination. 1862 Stanley Jew. Ch. (1877) I. x. 202 The Gibeonites..were an alien race. |
b. alien priory, priory alien: a monastic establishment dependent upon and owing obedience to a mother-abbey in a foreign country.
| 1502 Arnold Chron. (1811) 184 The priory alyen of Lynton. 1598 Hakluyt Voy. I. 18 To conceale from the Priors Aliens..the secret affaires of his Realme. 1611 Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. ix. xv. (1632) 786 One hundred and tenne Priories aliant were suppressed. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v., Upon breaking out of wars, the king usually seized on the alien priories, took their lands into his own hands. 1845 Stephen Laws of Eng. II. 679 The alien priories, that is, such as were filled by foreigners only. |
3. a. Foreign in nature or character; belonging to something else; of foreign or other origin.
| 1673 O. Walker Educ. (1677) 185 Chusing fit and convenient from improper and aliene. 1756 Burke Subl. & B. Wks. I. 101 Habit alone has reconciled his palate to these alien pleasures. 1841 Myers Cath. Th. iv. §32. 329 To introduce an alien and confusing element into our judgments. 1874 Sayce Compar. Philol. viii. 321 It may sometimes be difficult to detect the presence of an alien myth. |
b. Science Fiction. Of or pertaining to an (intelligent) being or beings from another planet; that derives from another world. See sense 1 b of the n. below.
| 1944 Astounding Sci. Fiction June 72/1 An alien ship, all right. Ibid. 76/2 He looked at the thing. It was alien.., horribly different from anything on Earth. 1967 Guardian 5 Sept. 1 Six mysterious flying saucer-shaped objects were found in..Southern England yesterday... Was this an alien attempt to establish life on this planet? 1986 Los Angeles Times 15 Nov. vi. 12/3 As for Tomlin, does she believe in alien beings and UFOs? |
c. Of a plant: brought from another country or district and subsequently naturalized. Cf. sense 5 of the n.
| 1903 S. T. Dunn (title) A preliminary history of the alien flora of Britain. 1919 Hayward & Druce Adventive Flora of Tweedside p. ix, In former times at Galashiels the effluents from the woollen mills carrying seeds washed out in the course of scouring found their way in to the river... In the near future, therefore [as a result of a new system of drainage], instead of a large alien flora appearing along the rivers only a few sporadic species can be expected to occur. 1960 N. Polunin Introd. Plant Geogr. iv. 119 It is said that the majority of alien plants in Australia and New Zealand come from Europe. 1983 Jrnl. Adelaide Bot. Garden VI. 124 By 1855..there were 114 alien species recorded as naturalised in South Australia. |
4. Of a nature or character differing from (of obs.), far removed from, inconsistent with.
| 1382 Wyclif John Prol., He is founde alien fro corupcioun of fleisch. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. ii. iv. (1495) 30 Aungels ben alyene and clene of all erthely cogytacyon. 1528 Gardiner in Pocock Rec. Ref. I. li. 121 Somewhat alien and discrepant from the expectation of the king's highness. 1667 Milton P.L. iv. 572 His looks Alien from Heaven, with passions foul obscured. 1709 Swift T. Tub Wks. 1768, 140 Neither do I think such an employment alien from the office of a wit. 1855 H. Reed Eng. Lit. ix. (1878) 294 This uncouth style, so alien from genuine English. 1874 Helps Soc. Press. iv. 61 To seize upon this wise bequest, and to devote it to alien purposes. |
This passes imperceptibly into
5. Of a nature repugnant, adverse or opposed to.
| 1720 Waterland 8 Serm. 146 All Things, or Persons whatsoever, that are seperate from, or aliene to; that are not necessarily included in..God the Father. 1780 Burke Econ. Ref. Wks. 1842 I. 238 A system of confusion remains, which is not only alien, but adverse to all economy. 1833 I. Taylor Fanat. vi. 177 Popery is alien to the climate and to the races of the Western world. 1875 M{supc}Laren Sermons Ser. ii. vii. 125 Good, alas! is but too alien and unwelcome. |
6. fig. Unkindly, unsympathetic, with the ‘cold stare’ of the stranger. rare.
| 1849 C. Brontë Shirley xxvii. 399 The stars shone alien and remote. |
7. Comb. alien-looking: of foreign or strange appearance.
| 1861 Geo. Eliot Silas M. 1 The shepherd's dog barked fiercely when one of these alien-looking men appeared. |
B. n. [the adj. used absol.]
1. a. A person belonging to another family, race, or nation; a stranger, a foreigner.
| 1330 R. Brunne Chron. 37 Þe reame salle men se Gouerned þorgh aliens kynde, & euermore fro þe. c 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 1377 For we dwell here als aliens. 1382 Wyclif Matt. xvii. 24 Of her owne sonys, ether of alyenys, or other mennys sones? 1387 Trevisa Higden Rolls Ser. VII. 33 A new aliaunte [advena] scholde expelle olde inhabitators. 1535 Coverdale Job xix. 15, I am become as an aleaunt in their sight. 1563 Homilies ii. (1859) 358 He that speaketh in a tongue unknown shall be unto the hearer an alient. 1611 Bible Ps. lxiv. 8 An aliant vnto my mothers children. ― Ex. xviii. 3, I haue bene an alien in a strange land. 1796 Southey Penates Wks. II. 281 Mourning his age left childless, and his wealth Heapt for an alien. 1861 Geo. Eliot Silas M. 2 Those scattered linen-weavers, emigrants from the town into the country, were to the last regarded as aliens by their rustic neighbours. |
b. Science Fiction. An (intelligent) being from another planet, esp. one far distant from the Earth; a strange (usu. threatening) alien visitor.
| 1953 ‘W. Tenn’ Of all Possible Worlds (1958) 57 The first of the aliens stepped out in the complex tripodal gait that all humans were shortly to know..so well. 1960 K. Amis New Maps of Hell (1961) i. 20 Some excellent stories have been written about non-communicating aliens, from The War of the Worlds onwards. 1984 Times 30 Nov. 15/4 A gentle, speechless alien of black human form lands in Harlem, whither he is pursued by a pair of white bounty-hunters from outer space. |
2. fig.
| 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, iii. ii. 34 Almost an alien to the hearts Of all the Court. 1675 Traherne Chr. Ethics v. 65 An alien to felicity, and a foreiner to himself. 1755 Young Centaur iv. Wks. 1757 IV. 203 Vengeance is an alien to thy most amiable nature. 1865 Dickens Christm. Bks. (C.D. ed.) 212 An alien from my mother's heart. |
3. a. esp. One who is a subject of another country than that in which he resides. A resident foreign in origin and not naturalized, whose allegiance is thus due to a foreign state.
| 1330 R. Brunne Chron. 96 Þat aliens suld non hent hauen of Normant. c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. ii. viii. 40 All Alienys þai banyst hale. 1480 Caxton Chron. Eng. v. (1520) 47 b/2 In his tyme shall his lande be multeplyed with alyauntes. 1547 Boorde Introd. Knowl. vii. 144 In Englande howe many alyons hath and doth dwell of all maner of nacyons. 1628 Coke On Litt. 8 a, An Alien that is borne out of the Kings ligeance. 1850 Maurice Mor. & Met. Philos. (ed. 2) 8 The Jewish people..in Egypt, are regarded as a dangerous body of aliens. 1871 W. Markby Elem. Law §122 An alien is a person who belongs to a different political society from that in which he resides. |
b. transf. A word from one language used but not naturalized in another language.
| 1884 New Eng. Dict. p. ix, Aliens are names of foreign objects, titles, etc., which we require often to use, and for which we have no native equivalents. 1926 Fowler Mod. Eng. Usage 193/2 Only faddists will engage in alien-hunting and insist on finding native substitutes for tête-à-tête, agent provocateur, [etc.]. 1933 Shorter Oxf. Eng. Dict. p. vii, Natives are words of Old English origin, denizens are borrowings from foreign languages which have acquired full English citizenship, aliens are words that retain their foreign appearance and to some extent their foreign sound. |
4. One separated, or excluded from (the citizenship and privileges of a nation).
| 1549 Coverdale Erasm. Paraphr. Hebr. vii. 6 Melchisedech..was an alyaunt from the Jewishe nacion. 1557 N. T. (Genev.) Eph. ii. 12 Reputed aliantes from the commen welth of Israel. 1738 Wesley Ps. xiii. 1 An Alien from the Life of Grace. 1837 J. H. Newman Par. Serm. I. i. 13 Not as if aliens from God's mercies. |
5. Bot. (See quot.)
| 1847 H. Watson Cybele 63, Alien, [a plant] now more or less established, but either presumed or certainly known to have been originally introduced from other countries. Ibid. 153 An imperfectly established alien. 1903 S. T. Dunn Prelim. List Alien Flora Britain 4There are..many species here classed as aliens which are old and well-established weeds in cultivated land, roadsides, and field borders. 1960 N. Polunin Introd. Plant Geogr. viii. 221 The discontinuation of a road or railway-line is apt to have a similar effect, and even those aliens which have managed to spread from the immediate vicinity of the travelled track usually disappear when Man's influence is removed. 1961 E. Salisbury Weeds & Aliens i. 18 Blackberry and Sweet Briar, deliberately introduced into New Zealand in the early days of colonisation, furnish examples of aliens that have become noxious weeds. 1987 New Scientist 12 Feb. 38/2Most aliens have escaped from gardens and cannot reproduce as well as common species that are native to Britain. |
6. Comb. alien-friend, (alien-amy), alien-enemy, law-terms designating an alien owing allegiance to a country which is for the time being in alliance, or at war, as the case may be, with the country in or to which he is an alien; aliens duty, the special duty formerly paid by aliens on imports and other mercantile transactions; alien-born, etc.
| 1522 Act 14 Hen. VIII, ii, No Stranger, being Alien borne..shall take, retaine or keep into his or their seruices any maner of Journyman. 1625 Sir. H. Finch Law (1636) 28 Any body may seise the goods of an alien enemy, to his owne vse. 1641 Termes de la Ley 18 Every alien friend may by the Common Law have and get within this Realme. 1706 Lond. Gaz. mmmmcclxxxviii/3 Exposed to publick Sale, 26 Bags of Spanish Wooll..paid Aliens Duties. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp., Aliens duty is otherwise called petty customs, and navigation duty. 1853 Wharton Pa. Digest §20. 94 An alien enemy cannot maintain an action during the war in his own name. |
▪ II. alien, v.
(ˈeɪlɪən)
Also 4–6 alyen(e, 4–9 aliene.
[a. OFr. aliéne-r:—L. aliēnā-re to estrange or make another's; f. aliē n-us: see alien a.]
= alienate, of which it is the earlier equivalent.
1. trans. To convert into an alien or stranger. Usually fig. To estrange, turn away in feelings or affection, to make averse or hostile, or unwelcome.
| c 1374 Chaucer Boeth. 27 Þei may not al arace hym ne alyene hym in al. 1382 Wyclif Ecclus. xi. 36 She shal..alienen thee fro thi propre weies. c 1555 Harpsfield Divorce Hen. VIII (1878) 189 To aliene the fast and entire mind, which his highness beareth to your holiness. 1633 Stafford Pac. Hib. i. (1821) 227 The fame..would alien me to loath this kind of life. a 1674 Clarendon Hist. Reb. I. ii. 111 The hearts of his Subjects were not then alien'd from their duty to the King. 1864 Ld. Derby Iliad i. 661 Yet shalt thou..rather thus Be alien'd from my heart. 1870 Lowell Among Bks. Ser. i. (1873) 157 Poetry had not been aliened from the people. |
2. To transfer the property or ownership of anything; to make over to another owner. (In this sense often written aliene, and pronounced (ˈeɪljiːn).)
| 1413 Lydg. Pylgr. Sowle i. xxx. 34 A servaunt may make no testament..to alyene ony goodes out of his lordes hond. c 1595 J. Norden Spec. Brit., Cornw. (1728) 14 None may alien or dispose of his tynn, till it be coyned. 1614 Raleigh Hist. World ii. 451 He might alien the Crowne from his naturall Heires. 1658 Bramhall Consecr. Bish. viii. 189 If he alien any Lands belonging to his See. 1768 Blackstone Comm. II. 289 He was not empowered to aliene. 1876 K. Digby Real Prop. v. §2. 216 If tenant in tail aliened the land with warranty. |
† 3. refl. and intr. To turn away, go off. Obs.
| 1382 Wyclif 1 Macc. vi. 24 The sonys of oure peple for this thing alieneden hem fro vs. 1541 R. Copland Guydon's Quest. Cyrurg., Whan it is seen that it [the pulse] alyeneth to vnequalyte, and that it minissheth, the veyne ought to be stopped. |