Estrangement

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ɪsˈtɹeɪnd͡ʒmənt/

Definitions

1. A state of being separated or alienated from someone with whom one was previously close or familiar
2. A condition marked by a withdrawal of affection or connection from someone who was once regarded as close or familiar
3. A situation characterized by a loss of affection or a severed bond with an individual previously held dear

Etymology: "Estrangement" is built from "estrange" and the suffix "-ment," which forms nouns meaning an act or state. The verb "estrange" came into English from Old French "estranger," a word that carried the sense of making someone foreign or alien. Its root is the Latin "extraneus," meaning "outside" or "foreign," which also gave English "strange" through a separate route, so the two words are close relatives that took different paths into the language. The surprising link here is that "estrange" and "strange" share a Latin ancestor but reached English by different roads: "strange" came through Old French "estrange" directly, while "estrange" was a later borrowing of the verb form. Both preserve the core idea of something located outside one's own circle. Estrangement therefore carries the physical picture of being pushed outside a household or a group, and its modern sense of growing apart from a person follows naturally from that. The suffix "-ment" simply turns the action of estranging into a noun describing the resulting state.

Synonyms: alienation, separation, disaffection, isolation, division

Antonyms: reconciliation, union, connection