foreigner

English

Etymology

From Middle English forner, foreyner, foroner, forenere, augmentation of earlier forein (“foreigner”), from the adjective. Equivalent to foreign +‎ -er. Use of the -er suffix may be due to analogy with Middle English straunger (“stranger”). Displaced native Old English elþēodiġ.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈfɒɹ.ɪ.nə(ɹ)/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈfɔɹ.ɪ.nɚ/, /ˈfɔɹ.ə.nɚ/
• (New York City) IPA^(key): /ˈfɑɹ.ɪ.nɚ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: for‧eign‧er

Noun

foreigner (plural foreigners)

1. A person from a foreign country.
   • 1852 April 5, Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville, quotee, “FOREIGN REFUGEES.”, in Hansard's Parliamentary Debates‎^[1]:

     By the existing law of Great Britain all foreigners have the unrestricted right of entrance and residence in this country; and while they remain in it are, equally with British subjects, under the protection of the law; nor can they be punished except for an offence against the law, and under the sentence of the ordinary tribunals of justice, after a public trial, and on a conviction founded on evidence given in open court. No foreigners, as such, can be sent out of this country by the Executive Government, except persons removed by virtue of treaties with other States; confirmed by Act of Parliament, for the mutual surrender of criminal offenders.

   • 1971 October 6, Alberto R. Oliva, “The American Sense of Guilt”, in The New York Times‎^[2]:

     For a student of American history and a foreigner like myself, it is easier to understand all these extremisms of conscience.

   • 2012 April 18, David McKenzie, “Chad’s migrant workers pay price for Libya conflict”, in CNN‎^[3]:

     Though foreigners did play some part in fighting as mercenaries for Gadhafi during the bloody Libyan war, the IOM and local leaders in Chad say the vast majority of Chadians, like Mohammed, were working to send remittances home.

2. A private job run by an employee at a trade factory rather than going through the business.

Synonyms

• (person from a foreign country): alien, metœcus, outlander, outsider, stranger; see also Thesaurus:foreigner

Derived terms

• antiforeigner
• foreignership
• nonforeigner

Related terms

• foreign
• furriner

Translations

person in a foreign land

• Afrikaans: buitelander
• Albanian: huaj (sq) m
• Arabic: أَجْنَبِيّ m (ʔajnabiyy), أَجْنَبِيَّة f (ʔajnabiyya)

  Egyptian Arabic: أجنبي m (ʔagnabi), أجنبية f (ʔagnabeya)

  Hijazi Arabic: أجنبي m (ʔajnabi), أجْنَبِيَّة f (ʔajnabiyya)

• Armenian: օտարերկրացի (hy) (ōtarerkracʻi), արտասահմանցի (artasahmancʻi), օտարազգի (hy) (ōtarazgi)
• Aromanian: xen m, striin m
• Azerbaijani: xarici (az), əcnəbi (az)
• Basque: atzerritar, kanpotar
• Belarusian: іншазе́мец m (inšazjémjec), іншазе́мка f (inšazjémka), чужазе́мец m (čužazjémjec), чужазе́мка f (čužazjémka), заме́жнік m (zamjéžnik), заме́жніца f (zamjéžnica)
• Bengali: বিদেশি (bn) (bideśi), বিদেশিনী (bn) (bideśini) (feminine), আজনবি (bn) (ajnobi)
• Bulgarian: чуждене́ц (bg) m (čuždenéc), чужденка́ f (čuždenká)
• Burmese: တတိုင်းတပြည်သား (ta.tuing:ta.pranysa:), နိုင်ငံခြားသား (my) (nuingngamhkra:sa:)
• Catalan: foraster (ca) m, forastera (ca) f; estranger (ca) m, estrangera (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 外國人 / 外国人 (ngoi⁶ gwok³ jan⁴), 老外 (lou⁵ ngoi^6-2) (colloquial)

  Dungan: вэгуйжын (veguyřɨn)

  Hokkien: 外國人 / 外国人 (gōa-kok-lâng), 外國儂 / 外国侬 (gōa-kok-lâng)

  Mandarin: 外國人 / 外国人 (zh) (wàiguórén), 外人 (zh) (wàirén), 老外 (zh) (lǎowài) (colloquial)

• Czech: cizinec (cs) m, cizinka f
• Danish: udlænding (da) c
• Dutch: buitenlander (nl) m, buitenlandse (nl) f
• Esperanto: fremdulo, fremdlandulo, eksterlandano
• Estonian: välismaalane
• Faroese: útlendingur m
• Finnish: ulkomaalainen (fi)
• French: étranger (fr) m, étrangère (fr) f
• Galician: estranxeiro (gl) m, estranxeira f, forasteiro (gl) m, forasteira f
• Georgian: უცხოელი (ucxoeli)
• German: Ausländer (de) m, Ausländerin (de) f
• Greek: ξένος (el) m (xénos), ξένη (el) f (xéni), αλλοδαπός (el) m (allodapós), αλλοδαπή (el) f (allodapí)

  Ancient: ξένος m (xénos), ξένη f (xénē)

• Guaraní: pytagua
• Gujarati: વિદેશી (videśī)
• Hebrew: זָר (he) m (zar), זָרָה (he) f
• Hindi: विदेशी (hi) m (videśī), अन्यदेशीय (hi) (anyadeśīya), परदेशी (hi) m (pardeśī), अजनबी m (ajnabī) (also stranger)
• Hungarian: külföldi (hu), idegen (hu)
• Icelandic: útlendingur (is) m
• Indonesian: orang asing
• Irish: coimhthíoch m, eachtrannach m

  Old Irish: echtrann m

• Italian: straniero (it) m, straniera (it) f
• Japanese: 外国人 (ja) (がいこくじん, gaikokujin), 外人 (ja) (がいじん, gaijin) (colloquial), 異国人 (いこくじん, ikokujin)
• Jarawa: innen
• Kazakh: шетелдік (şeteldık), шетел адамы (şetel adamy)
• Khmer: ជនបរទេស (km) (cŭən bɑɑrĕəʼteih), បរទេស (km) (bɑɑrĕəʼteih)
• Korean: 외국인(外國人) (ko) (oegugin), 이국인(異國人) (igugin), 외인(外人) (oein)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: biyanî (ku), ecnebî (ku)

• Kyrgyz: чет өлкөлүк (cet ölkölük)
• Lao: ຝຣັ່ງ (fa rang), ແຂກ (lo) (khǣk), ແຂກກູລາ (khǣk kū lā), ຄົນນອກ (khon nǭk)
• Latin: barbarus (la) m, peregrīnus m, extraneus m, alienus (la)
• Latvian: ārzemnieks m, ārzemniece f
• Lithuanian: užsienietis m, užsienietė f, svetimšalis m, kitakilmis m
• Macedonian: странец m (stranec), странкиња f (strankinja), туѓинец m (tuǵinec), туѓинка f (tuǵinka)
• Malay: orang asing
• Malayalam: വിദേശി (ml) (vidēśi)
• Maltese: għarib m, għariba f, barrani m, barranija f
• Maori: tautangata
• Middle English: foreyn, foreyner
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: гадаадын хүн (gadaadyn xün), гаднын хүн (mn) (gadnyn xün)

• Navajo: anaʼí, déʼéyóní
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: utlending m

  Nynorsk: utlending (nn) m

• Occitan: estrangièr (oc), forastièr (oc)
• Old Czech: jinokrajín m
• Old English: elþēodiġ m, elþēodgu f
• Old Tupi: mamõygûara
• Ottoman Turkish: یابانجی (yabancı)
• Pashto: اجنبي (ps) m or f (ajnabí), خارج (ps) m (xāréj)
• Persian:

  Dari: اَجْنَبِی (ajnabī), خَارِجِی (xārijī), بیگَانَه (bēgāna)

  Iranian Persian: اَجْنَبی (ajnabi), خارِجی (xâreji), بیگانِه (bigâne)

• Polish: cudzoziemiec (pl) m, cudzoziemka (pl) f, obcokrajowiec (pl) m
• Portuguese: estrangeiro (pt) m, estrangeira (pt) f
• Romanian: străin (ro) m, străină (ro) f
• Russian: иностра́нец (ru) m (inostránec), иностра́нка (ru) f (inostránka), чужезе́мец (ru) m (čužezémec), чужезе́мка (ru) f (čužezémka), инозе́мец (ru) m (inozémec), инозе́мка (ru) f (inozémka), чужестра́нец (ru) m (čužestránec), чужестра́нка (ru) f (čužestránka)
• Scots: fremmit fowk
• Scottish Gaelic: coimheach m, coigreach m, Gall m, eilthireach m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: стра́нац m, стра̏нкиња f, туђи́нац m, ту̀ђӣнка f

  Roman: stránac (sh) m, strȁnkinja (sh) f, tuđínac (sh) m, tùđīnka (sh) f

• Sherpa: ཕྱི་རྒྱ (phyi rgya)
• Slovak: cudzinec m, cudzinka f
• Slovene: tujec (sl) m, tujka f
• Sorbian:

  Upper Sorbian: wukrajnik m

• Spanish: extranjero (es) m, extranjera (es) f, forastero (es) m, fuereño (es) m, foráneo (es) m, afuereño (es) m, afuerino (es) m, extranjis m or f (colloquial), meteco (es) m (despective)
• Swahili: ajinabi (sw)
• Swedish: utlänning (sv) c
• Tajik: хориҷӣ (tg) (xoriji), аҷнабӣ (tg) (ajnabi), бегона (tg) (begona)
• Telugu: పరదేశి (te) (paradēśi)
• Tetum: malae
• Thai: ฝรั่ง (th) (fà-ràng), ฮวน (th) (huuan), ต่างชาติ (th) (dtàang-châat), ต่างด้าว (th) (dtàang-dâao), คนจร
• Tibetan: ཕྱི་རྒྱལ་གྱི་མི (phyi rgyal gyi mi)
• Tulu: ಪರ್ರಾಯೆ (parrāye)
• Turkish: yabancı (tr), ecnebi (tr), çet elli (tr)
• Turkmen: gemişek
• Ugaritic: 𐎐𐎋𐎗 (nkr)
• Ukrainian: інозе́мець m (inozémecʹ), інозе́мка f (inozémka), чужозе́мець m (čužozémecʹ), чужозе́мка f (čužozémka)
• Urdu: اَجْنَبی (ur) m (ajnabī) (also stranger), پَرْدیسی m (pardesī), بیگانَہ m (begāna)
• Uyghur: چەت ئەللىك (chet ellik), چەتئەللىك (chet'ellik), ئەجنەبىي (ejnebiy)
• Uzbek: chet ellik, ajnabiy (uz)
• Vietnamese: người nước ngoài, người ngoại quốc
• Volapük: (♂♀) foginänan (vo), (♂) hifoginänan, (♀) jifoginänan
• Welsh: alltud
• Yiddish: אויסלענדער m (oyslender), אויסלענדערין f (oyslenderin)