Foreignnesses

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The quality or state of being from a different country or culture
2. The condition of being unfamiliar or not native to a particular environment
3. A sense of otherness that arises from cultural differences or distinctions

Etymology: "Foreignnesses" is the plural of "foreignness," which is simply "foreign" with the suffix "-ness" attached. That suffix, from Old English "-nes" and ultimately Proto-Germanic, turns an adjective into a noun for a quality, so "foreignness" names the state of being foreign. The plural form pluralizes that noun, which is why it is rarely used: "foreignness" is normally uncountable, and the plural only appears when speakers want to treat distinct instances or kinds of strangeness as separate things. The base word has a more tangled past. "Foreign" came into Middle English from Old French "forain," meaning outside or from elsewhere, which itself descends from Vulgar Latin "forānus," built on Latin "foris," meaning "outside" or "out of doors." So at its root, the word is about being out there, beyond the door, rather than about strangeness as such. Over centuries, "outside" slid into "belonging to another country," and then into "unfamiliar."