foreign

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *dʰwer-
Proto-Indo-European *-h₂
Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂
Proto-Indo-European *dʰworéh₂
Proto-Italic *þworā
Proto-Italic *fworā
Proto-Italic *forā
Latin *fora
Proto-Indo-European *-h₂
Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂der.
Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ns
Proto-Italic *-ans
Latin -ās
Latin forās
Proto-Indo-European *-nós
Proto-Italic *-nosder.
Proto-Italic *-ānos
Latin -ānus
Proto-Indo-European *dʰwer-
Proto-Indo-European *-s
Proto-Indo-European *dʰwṓr
Proto-Italic *θworeis < *θworis
Latin forīs < foris
▲
Latin -ānus
Vulgar Latin *forānus
Old French forainbor.
▲
Middle English ferinflu.
Middle English foreyn
▲
English reigninflu.?
English foreign

    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).

    Pronunciation

    Adjective

    foreign (comparative more foreign, superlative most foreign)

    2. Located outside a country or place, especially one's own.
      foreign markets; foreign soil
      He liked visiting foreign cities.
    4. 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
      There are many more foreign students in Europe since the Erasmus scheme started.
      • 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Ayrsham Mystery”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:
        The cane was undoubtedly of foreign make, for it had a solid silver ferrule at one end, which was not English hall–marked.
      • 2013 August 24, “Guardian warriors and golden eggs”, in The Economist‎[1], volume 408, number 8850, London: The Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 12 December 2016:
        Foreign companies love to complain about doing business in China. […] Amid such moans it is worth remembering that, for all the barriers that foreign multinationals face in China, it has welcomed them with open arms compared with the protectionism imposed by Japan and South Korea at comparable stages in their economic development.
    6. Relating to a different nation.
      foreign policy; foreign navies
      • 2025 April 23, Zachary B. Wolf, “Elon Musk’s government role gets even murkier”, in CNN‎[2], Atlanta, Ga.: Warner Bros. Discovery, archived from the original on 23 July 2025:
        Plus, the Department of Justice has argued in the past that SGEs are subject to the emoluments clause, which means they cannot take payments from foreign governments.
    8. Not characteristic of or naturally taken in by an organism or system.
      foreign body; foreign substance; foreign gene; foreign species
    10. (with to, formerly with from) Alien; strange; uncharacteristic.
      It was completely foreign to their way of thinking.
      • 1708 December 15 (Gregorian calendar; date written), [Jonathan Swift], A Letter from a Member of the House of Commons in Ireland to a Member of the House of Commons in England, Concerning the Sacramental Test, London: […] John Morphew […], published 1709, →OCLC, page 14:
        [T]his deſign is not ſo foreign from ſome Peoples Thoughts, […]
      • 1962 August, G. Freeman Allen, “Traffic control on the Great Northern Line”, in Modern Railways, page 133:
        Only when one has seen a Control Office at first-hand does one realise the vast amount of unsparing but largely unsung work that is behind the eventual publication, perhaps, of a paragraph in this journal's "Motive Power Miscellany" recording the appearance, within hours of the complete blockage of a main line, of many of its trains, passenger and freight, on routes quite foreign to them; and of effective emergency services either side of the disaster area.
    12. (obsolete) Held at a distance; excluded; exiled.
    14. (US, Canada, law) From a different legal jurisdiction (state, province), even if within the same country.
    16. Belonging to a different organization, company etc.
      My bank charges me $2.50 every time I use a foreign ATM.
    18. (obsolete) Outside, outdoors, outdoor.

    Synonyms

    Antonyms

    • (antonym(s) of “from a different country”): domestic
    • (antonym(s) of “not characteristic”): native
    • (antonym(s) of “native to an area”): indigenous

    Derived terms

    Descendants

    • → Tamil: ஃபாரின் (fāriṉ)

    Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
    Translations to be checked‌: "belonging to a different culture"

    Noun

    foreign (plural foreigns)

    1. A foreign person, particularly:
      1. (now informal) A foreigner: a person from another country.
      2. (obsolete) An outsider: a person from another place or group.
      3. (obsolete) A non-guildmember.
    2. A foreign vehicle, particularly:
      1. (obsolete) A foreign ship.
      2. (slang) A foreign whip, a car produced abroad.
        • 2019 August 28, Yb Tak30ver, “Island”‎[4], 1:16 :
          In the foreign switching lanes and we riding
          […]
          A island I wanna live somewhere silent
          I'm shining I'm bout to flood my neck with diamonds
          Yeah I've been spitting facts these niggas lying
          I'm driving stolens, foreigns, yeah I'm riding
    3. (obsolete) An outhouse; an outdoor toilet.
      Synonyms: see Thesaurus:outhouse
    4. A foreign area, particularly:
      1. (now dialect) An area of a community that lies outside the legal town or parish limits.
      2. (obsolete, usually in the plural) An area of a monastery outside its legal limits or serving as an outer court.
    5. Short for various phrases, including foreign language, foreign parts, and foreign service.

    Translations

    References

    Further reading

    • “foreign”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

    Anagrams

    Norwegian Nynorsk

    Alternative forms

    • foregn, forogn, forong, fårångn, forreng, føregn

    Etymology

    Probably related to føregangar m, in which case it originally had root -gjeng-, what does not explain the origin of the diphthong -ei- or any other vowel used instead of this diphtong in its dialectal forms.

    If related to verb eiga (“to own”), the semantic origin would be hard to explain, as well as the /u/ or /o/ occuring instead of the diphtong in some dialectal forms.

    Most likely it has prefix for-, which is common for many of its synonyms, because it occurs before the real object shows up. The word eign (“a kind of guarding angel”) is attested in Vefsn, but may be a later formation.

    Attested so far south as Gravvik and Foldereid (where pronounced as /forːuŋn/). Further south on the coast there is used its synonym foring m, which is probably not etymologycally related to it, but rather to verb fara. Also probably not related to gjegn n (“weird object or animal”) attested in Innherred.

    Pronunciation

    • IPA(key): /forːeŋn/ (some dialects)

    Noun

    foreign f (definite singular foreigna, indefinite plural foreigner, definite plural foreignene)

    1. (folklore, Trøndelag, Nordnorsk, Troms) synonym of vardøger

    References

    • “foreign”, in Norsk Ordbok: Ordbok over det Norske Folkemålet og det Nynorske Skriftmålet (in Norwegian Nynorsk), Oslo: Det Norske Samlaget, 1950–2016, →ISBN.
    • Tor Erik Jenstad; Arnold Dalen (2002), Trønderordboka (in Norwegian), page 114
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