Straunger

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An archaic spelling of a person one has never met or does not know ; a newcomer or foreigner who comes from another land or community
2. An old form of the word for an unfamiliar person ; someone who is from a distant place and not part of the local community
3. A person not known to you personally ; an outsider or visitor from a foreign country or unfamiliar region

Etymology: The word "straunger" is simply an older spelling of "stranger", and it reached English from Old French "estrangier", meaning "foreign" or "alien". That French word came from "estrange", which descended from Latin "extraneus", "foreign, external", built from "extra", "outside of". The same Latin root gave English the verb "estrange", meaning to keep someone at a distance, so the two words are close relatives. The most surprising twist is what English used before this word arrived. Old English had "fremde", meaning "strange or unfamiliar person", and the French-derived term gradually displaced it. The native word vanished, while a term from the Latin "outside" idea took over the role of describing an outsider.