Familiar

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /fəˈmɪl.i.ə/

Definitions

1. Well-known due to regular exposure or association
2. Easily recognized from previous experience or contact ; showing a relaxed and informal manner towards others
3. Known through frequent interaction or study ; behaving in a casual or warm way with people

Etymology: Latin "familiaris" meant "of the household," and the household it pointed to was the familia, which in Rome included the slaves and servants as well as the family proper. So the root of "familiar" carries a sense of people who lived under one roof, not of kinship alone. Adjectives in "-aris" were built on nouns in just this way, so the Latin word was simply "belonging to the familia." English took the word in Middle English, and its earliest senses were close to the Latin: intimate, on close or domestic terms with someone. The meaning of being easily recognized, the sense of something already known to us, grew out of that idea of long familiarity. A thing we know well is one we have lived alongside. The word also drove out an older English term, "hīwcūþ," which meant "known to the household" or "well-known," and is the native counterpart to the same idea. It is a close relative of "familial," which came into English later from the same Latin source, so the two words are doublets.

Synonyms: well-known, acquainted

Antonyms: strange, unfamiliar