Foreigner

[f. FOREIGN a. + -ER¹.]

  1.  A person born in a foreign country; one from abroad or of another nation; an alien.

  In ordinary use chiefly applied to those who speak a foreign language as their native tongue; thus in England the term is not commonly understood to include Americans.

1413.  Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton), IV. xxxviii. (1859), 64. Pharao put the children of Israel in to grete seruage and in to grete afflictions. But no wonder was it, for they were straunge foreyners, nought of his propre peple.

1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 302. Whome that foreyner & straunger Pylate wolde oftentymes … haue delyuered.

1561.  T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., IV. 138. I am here a foriner and stranger, as all my fathers were.

1637.  Decree Star Chamb., § 12, in Milton’s Areop. (Arb.), 15. That no stranger or forreigner whatsoeuer, be suffered to bring in, or vent here, any booke or bookes printed beyond the seas, in any language whatsouer.

1703.  Lond. Gaz., No. 3916/3. Having reviewed all the Horse and Foot under his Command, as well English as Foreigners.

1835.  Thirlwall, Greece, I. vii. 268. Besides the Dorians there were foreigners of other nations who were driven about the same time to Laconia, by the tempest which was now sweeping over Greece.

  b.  transf. Something produced or brought from abroad; esp. a foreign vessel.

1677.  Plot, Oxfordsh., 148. Beside what I have seen amongst forreigners [plants] in Gardens.

1716.  Addison, The Free-Holder, No. 22, 5 March, ¶ 3. The Limons, the Brandy, the Sugar, and the Nutmeg, were all Foreigners.

1823.  Scoresby, Jrnl. Whale Fishery, 68. A fleet of nine or ten ships were assembled … none of them followed us, excepting a foreigner, when we entered this ice. Ibid., 419. The black rat and the common mouse are enumerated in the Fauna Grœlandica, but both these are foreigners imported by the shipping.

1891.  Daily News, 21 Nov., 5/3. The failure of the English walnut crop has enhanced the price of ‘foreigners.’

  2.  One of another county, parish, etc.; a stranger, outsider. In early use esp. one not a member of any particular guild, a non-freeman. Now dial.

14[?].  Customs of Malton, in Surtees Misc. (1890), 59. Yffe any man that dwellys w^t in y^e sayd Burgage, als wele a foraner as Burges, be sommonyd to any cowrte w^t owte ye Burgage.

c. 1460.  in Eng. Gilds (1870), 317. Ye shall not suffer not counsell any forynar to dwell w^tyn þ^e franschys of this craft.

1565.  in Picton, L’pool Munic. Rec. (1883), I. 75. No foreigner, as men of Bolton, Blackburne or any other places, sell any iron, wood, or any other kind of wares to any foreign person other than to a freeman of this town, on pain of forfeiture of the same.

1676.  Degge, Parson’s Counsellor, II. v. (1695), 248. There is no difference between the Case of a Parishioner and a Forreigner, where the ground is eaten with unprofitable Cattel, and not bred for the Plow and Pail, &c.

1700.  Grassmens’ Acc. (Surtees), 96. If any Forraner or Freeborn Come to stint our said moore or pasture that they shall pay y^e said sum of Threepence per gate.

1855.  Mrs. Gaskell, North & S., xvii. ‘Yo’re just a foreigner, and nothing more,’ said he, contemptuously. ‘Much yo know about it.’

1875.  Parish, Sussex Gloss., Foreigner. A stranger; a person who comes from any other county but Sussex.

  † 3.  fig. A stranger, outsider; a little-known person; rarely, a person other than oneself (cf. FOREIGN a. 2). Obs.

1586.  T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad. I. (1594), 75. He, that would not be a stranger to the universe, an alien to felicity, and a foreiner to himself.

1597.  Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lxviii. § 1. They are Dogs, Swine, unclean beasts, forreiners and strangers from the Church of God, and therefore ought not to bee admitted though they offer themselves.

1621.  Burton, Anat. Mel., III. iii. I. i. (1651), 591. Jealousie is … a fear or doubt, lest any forrainer should participate or share with him in his loue.

1641.  Denham, Sophy, V. 52.