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Origin and history of alienate

alienate(v.)

1510s, "transfer to the ownership of another;" 1540s, "make estranged" (in feelings or affections), from Latin alienatus, past participle of alienare "to make another's, part with; estrange, set at variance," from alienus "of or belonging to another person or place," from alius "another, other, different" (from PIE root *al- (1) "beyond"). Related: Alienated; alienating.

In Middle English the verb was simply alien, from Old French aliener and directly from Latin alienare. It is attested from mid-14c. in theology, "estrange" (from God, etc.; in past participle aliened); late 14c. as "break away (from), desert;" c. 1400 in law, "transfer or surrender one's title to property or rights."

also from 1510s

Entries linking to alienate

alienable(adj.)

"that can be surrendered or given up," 1610s; from obsolete alien (v.), for which see alienate, + -able. Related: Alienability.

alienist(n.)

"one who scientifically treats or studies mental illness," 1864, from French aliéniste, from alienation in the sense of "insanity, loss of mental faculty," from Latin alienare "deprive of reason, drive mad," literally "to make another's, estrange" (see alienate). The mental sense of alienate has since mostly died out in English, but Middle English had aliened from mind "deranged, not rational" (late 14c.), and alienation was used from 15c. in a sense of "loss or derangement of mental faculties, insanity."

*al-(1)

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "beyond."

It might form all or part of: adulteration; adultery; alias; alibi; alien; alienate; alienation; allegory; allele; allergy; allo-; allopathy; allotropy; Alsace; alter; altercation; alternate; alternative; altruism; eldritch; else; hidalgo; inter alia; other; outrage; outrageous; outre; parallax; parallel; subaltern; synallagmatic; ulterior; ultimate; ultra-.

It might also be the source of: Sanskrit anya "other, different," arana- "foreign;" Avestan anya-, Armenian ail "another;" Greek allos "other, different, strange;" Latin alius "another, other, different," alter "the other (of two)," ultra "beyond, on the other side;" Gothic aljis "other," Old English elles "otherwise, else," German ander "other."

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    Trends of alienate

    adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

    More to explore

    alien
    c. 1300, "strange, foreign," from Old French alien "strange, foreign;" as a noun, "an alien, stranger, foreigner," from Latin alienus "of or belonging to another, not one's own, foreign, strange," also, as a noun, "a stranger, foreigner," adjective from alius (adv.) "another, oth
    avert
    avert; make aware" (12c.), from Vulgar Latin *advertire, from Latin avertere "to turn away; to drive away; shun; ward off; alienate...
    amortize
    late 14c., amortisen, in law, "to alienate lands," also (c. 1400) "to deaden, destroy;" from Old French amortiss-, present-participle...
    blasphemy
    Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw as "speaking evil of the Deity with an impious purpose to derogate from the Divine Majesty and to alienate...
    strike
    Middle English striken, from Old English strican (past tense strac, past participle stricen) "pass lightly over, stroke, smooth, rub" (senses now obsolete), also "go, move, proceed, make one's way," from Proto-Germanic *strikanan (source also of Old Norse strykva "to stroke," Old
    wane
    Old English wanian "make or become smaller gradually, diminish, decline, fade," from Proto-Germanic *wanōnan (source also of Old Saxon wanon, Old Norse vana, Old Frisian wania, Middle Dutch waenen, Old High German wanon "to wane, to grow less"), from *wano- "lacking," from PIE *w
    wean
    "train (an infant or animal) to forego suckling," c. 1200, from Old English wenian "to accustom, habituate," from Proto-Germanic *wanjan (source also of Old Norse venja, Dutch wennen, Old High German giwennan, German gewöhnen "to accustom"), from PIE *won-eyo-, causative form of
    move
    late 13c., meven, in various senses (see below), from Anglo-French mover, Old French movoir "to move, get moving, set out; set in motion; introduce" (Modern French mouvoir), from Latin movere "move, set in motion; remove; disturb" (past participle motus, frequentative motare), fr
    alert
    "on the watch," 1610s, from French alerte "vigilant" (17c.), from prepositional phrase à l'erte "on the watch," from Italian all'erta "to the height." The second element is from erta "lookout, high tower," noun use of fem. of erto, past participle of ergere "raise up," from Latin
    alter
    late 14c., "to change (something), make different in some way," from Old French alterer "to change, alter," from Medieval Latin alterare "to change," from Latin alter "the other (of the two)," from PIE root *al- (1) "beyond" + comparative suffix -ter (as in other). Intransitive s

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