Forms: 4–6 alyen(e, 5 aliaunte, 5–6 aliente, alyaunte, 6 aleyn, alyon, aleaunt, 6–7 aliant, -aunt, -ent, 7 alliant, 4–8 aliene, 4– alien. [a. OFr. alien, allien:—L. aliēn-us of or belonging to another person or place; f. ali-us other, another + -ēn-us: see -EN, -ENE. The -t so commonly added, esp. to the sb., was due to form-assoc. with ppl words in -nt, -nd, in which there was an organic tendency to drop the final mute (cf. gyane for giant, etc.), in the literary struggle against which, t was added where it had not been dropped; cf. tyrant, pageant, ancient.]
1. gen. Belonging to another person, place or family; strange, foreign, not of one’s own.
1340. Hampole, Prose Tr., 45. Ffra þe souerayne joy and gastely swetnes in þe blysse of Heuene he sall be aliene.
1382. Wyclif, Gen. xxxv. 2. Doth awey alyen goddis, that ben in the mydil of ȝow.
c. 1600. Shaks., Sonn., lxxviii. Euery Alien pen hath got my vse.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Eclog., VIII. 62. In Desarts thou wert bred … Alien of Birth.
1797. Cowper, Iliad, XVI. 75. As I had been Some alien wretch.
1820. Keats, Ode to Night., 67. Ruth … stood in tears amid the alien corn.
1880. Morris, Ode of Life, 86. To watch by alien sick-beds.
2. esp. Of a foreign nation and allegiance.
c. 1450. J. Russell, Bk. Nurture, in Babees Bk., 191. Take hede he must to aliene commers straungeres, and to straungers of þis land.
1503. Act 19 Hen. VII., xxxiii. 11. That no spirituell person ne straunger Aleyn be chargeable.
1809. Tomlins, Law Dict., s.v., Obsolete statutes … prohibiting alien artificers to work for themselves in this kingdom.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 185. Disastrous war and alien domination.
1862. Stanley, Jew. Ch. (1877), I. x. 202. The Gibeonites … were an alien race.
Alien Priory, Priory Alien: a monastic establishment dependent upon and owing obedience to a mother-abbey in a foreign country.
1502. Arnold, Chron. (1811), 784. The priory alyen of Lynton.
1598. R. Hakluyt, Voy., I. 18. To conceale from the Priors Aliens … the secret affaires of his Realme.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., IX. xv. (1632), 786. One hundred and tenne Priories aliant were suppressed.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v., Upon breaking out of wars, the king usually seized on the alien priories, took their lands into his own hands.
1845. Stephen, Laws of Eng., II. 679. The alien priories, that is, such as were filled by foreigners only.
3. Foreign in nature or character; belonging to something else; of foreign or other origin.
1673. O. Walker, Educ. (1677), 185. Chusing fit and convenient from improper and aliene.
1756. Burke, Subl. & B., Wks. I. 101. Habit alone has reconciled his palate to these alien pleasures.
1841. Myers, Cath. Th., IV. § 32. 329. To introduce an alien and confusing element into our judgments.
1874. Sayce, Compar. Philol., viii. 321. It may sometimes be difficult to detect the presence of an alien myth.
4. Of a nature or character differing from (of obs.), far removed from, inconsistent with.
1382. Wyclif, John, Prol. He is founde alien fro corupcioun of fleisch.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., II. iv. (1495), 30. Aungels ben alyene and clene of all erthely cogytacyon.
1528. Gardiner, in Pocock, Rec. Ref., I. li. 121. Somewhat alien and discrepant from the expectation of the king’s highness.
1667. Milton, P. L., IV. 572. His looks Alien from Heaven, with passions foul obscured.
1709. Swift, T. Tub, Wks. 1768, 140. Neither do I think such an employment alien from the office of a wit.
1855. H. Reed, Eng. Lit., ix. (1878), 294. This uncouth style, so alien from genuine English.
1874. Helps, Soc. Press., iv. 61. To seize upon this wise bequest, and to devote it to alien purposes.
This passes imperceptibly into
5. Of a nature repugnant, adverse or opposed to.
1720. Waterland, 8 Serm., 146. All Things, or Persons whatsoever, that are seperate from, or aliene to; that are not necessarily included in … God the Father.
1780. Burke, Œcon. Reform., Wks. 1842, I. 238. A system of confusion remains, which is not only alien, but adverse to all economy.
1833. I. Taylor, Fanat., vi. 177. Popery is alien to the climate and to the races of the Western world.
1875. McLaren, Sermons, Ser. II. vii. 125. Good, alas! is but too alien and unwelcome.
6. fig. Unkindly, unsympathetic, with the ‘cold stare’ of the stranger. rare.
1849. C. Brontë, Shirley, xxvii. 399. The stars shone alien and remote.
7. Comb. alien-looking: of foreign or strange appearance.
1861. Geo. Eliot, Silas M., 1. The shepherd’s dog barked fiercely when one of these alien-looking men appeared.
B. sb. [the adj. used absol.]
1. A person belonging to another family, race or nation; a stranger, a foreigner.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron., 37. Þe reame salle men se Gouerned þorgh aliens kynde, & euermore fro þe.
c. 1340. Hampole, Pr. Consc., 1377. For we dwell here als aliens.
1382. Wyclif, Matt. xvii. 24. Of her owne sonys, ether of alyenys, or other mennys sones?
1387. Trevisa, Higden, Rolls Ser. VII. 33. A new aliaunte [advena] scholde expelle olde inhabitators.
1535. Coverdale, Job xix. 15. I am become as an aleaunt in their sight.
1563. Homilies, II. (1859), 358. He that speaketh in a tongue unknown shall be unto the hearer an alient.
1611. Bible, Ps. lxiv. 8. An aliant vnto my mothers children. Ibid., Ex. xviii. 3. I haue bene an alien in a strange land.
1796. Southey, Penates, Wks. II. 281. Mourning his age left childless, and his wealth Heapt for an alien.
1861. Geo. Eliot, Silas M., 2. Those scattered linen-weavers, emigrants from the town into the country, were to the last regarded as aliens by their rustic neighbours.
2. fig.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., III. ii. 34. Almost an alien to the hearts Of all the Court.
1675. Traherne, Chr. Ethics, v. 65. An alien to felicity, and a foreiner to himself.
1755. Young, Centaur, iv. Wks. 1757, IV. 203. Vengeance is an alien to thy most amiable nature.
1865. Dickens, Christm. Bks. (C. D. ed.), 212. An alien from my mother’s heart.
3. esp. One who is a subject of another country than that in which he resides. A resident foreign in origin and not naturalized, whose allegiance is thus due to a foreign state.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron., 96. Þat aliens suld non hent hauen of Normant.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., II. viii. 40. All Alienys þai banyst hale.
1480. Caxton, Chron. Eng., V. (1520), 47 b/2. In his tyme shall his lande be multeplyed with alyauntes.
1547. Boorde, Introd. Knowl., vii. 144. In Englande howe many alyons hath and doth dwell of all maner of nacyons.
1628. Coke, On Litt., 8 a. An Alien that is borne out of the Kings ligeance.
1850. Maurice, Mor. & Met. Philos. (ed. 2), 8. The Jewish people … in Egypt, are regarded as a dangerous body of aliens.
1871. Markby, Elem. Law, § 122. An alien is a person who belongs to a different political society from that in which he resides.
4. One separated, or excluded from (the citizenship and privileges of a nation).
1549. Coverdale, Erasm. Paraphr. Hebr. vii. 6. Melchisedech … was an alyaunt from the Jewishe nacion.
1557. N. T. (Genev.), Eph. ii. 12. Reputed aliantes from the commen welth of Israel.
1738. Wesley, Ps. xiii. 1. An Alien from the Life of Grace.
1837. J. H. Newman, Par. Serm., I. i. 13. Not as if aliens from God’s mercies.
5. Bot. (See quot.)
1847. H. Watson, Cybele, 63. Alien, [a plant] now more or less established, but either presumed or certainly known to have been originally introduced from other countries. Ibid., 153. An imperfectly established alien.
6. Comb. alien-friend, (alien-amy), alien-enemy, law-terms designating an alien owing allegiance to a country which is for the time being in alliance, or at war, as the case may be, with the country in or to which he is an alien; aliens duty, the special duty formerly paid by aliens on imports and other mercantile transactions; alien-born, etc.
1522. Act 14 Hen. VIII., ii. No Stranger, being Alien borne … shall take, retaine or keep into his or their seruices any maner of Journyman.
1625. Sir H. Finch, Law (1636), 28. Any body may seise the goods of an alien enemy, to his owne vse.
1641. Termes de la Ley, 18. Every alien friend may by the Common Law have and get within this Realme.
1706. Lond. Gaz., mmmmcclxxxviii/3. Exposed to publick Sale, 26 Bags of Spanish Wooll … paid Aliens Duties.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Aliens duty is otherwise called petty customs, and navigation duty.
1853. Wharton, Pa. Digest, § 20. 94. An alien enemy cannot maintain an action during the war in his own name.
