alien: [14] The essential notion contained in alien is of ‘otherness’. Its ultimate source is Latin alius ‘other’ (which is related to English else). From this was formed a Latin adjective aliēnus ‘belonging to another person or place’, which passed into English via Old French alien. In Middle English an alternative version alient arose (in the same way as ancient, pageant, and tyrant came from earlier ancien, pagin, and tyran), but this died out during the 17th century.
The verb alienate ‘estrange’ or ‘transfer to another’s ownership’ entered the language in the mid 16th century, eventually replacing an earlier verb alien (source of alienable and inalienable). => alibi, else
alien (adj.)
mid-14c., "strange, foreign," from Old French alien "alien, strange, foreign; an alien, stranger, foreigner," from Latin alienus "of or belonging to another, foreign, alien, strange," also, as a noun, "a stranger, foreigner," adjectival form of alius "(an)other" (see alias (adv.)). Meaning "not of the Earth" first recorded 1920. An alien priory (c. 1500) is one owing obedience to a mother abbey in a foreign country.
alien (n.)
"foreigner, citizen of a foreign land," from alien (adj.). In the science fiction sense, from 1953.
实用例句
1. Leningrad was the third alien city to offer him a surrogate home.
列宁格勒是他在异地安家的第三个外国城市。
来自柯林斯例句
2. When war broke out, he was interned as an enemy alien.
战争爆发时，他作为敌国人士遭到关押。
来自柯林斯例句
3. His work offers an insight into an alien culture.
他的作品能让人们对一种异域文化产生较深入的了解。
来自柯林斯例句
4. Such an attitude is alien to most bu-sinessmen.
大多数商界人士都会对这样的态度感到陌生。
来自柯林斯例句
5. In a world that had suddenly become alien and dangerous, he was her only security.
