Other forms: foreigners
A foreigner is somebody from another country. A perfectly plain description that has acquired a chill.
The word is grammatically neutral and socially loaded, since it defines a person entirely by not belonging, which is why careful writing prefers overseas visitor, international student or simply the person's nationality. It is still standard in some legal and historical contexts. The adjective foreign is far less charged when applied to things, so foreign travel and foreign languages are perfectly ordinary. A tourist is a visitor, and a resident may be a citizen.
1nounforeignerA person from another country.
“Half the audience were foreigners on holiday.”
Foreigner is foreign with an ending it never needed, since forein already meant a foreigner by itself. The extra er probably arrived by analogy with stranger.
Middle English
forner
English, today
foreigner
Built from
From Middle English forner, foreyner, foroner, forenere, augmentation of earlier forein (“foreigner”), from the adjective. Equivalent to foreign + -er. Use of the -er suffix may be due to analogy with straunger (“stranger”). Displaced native elþēodiġ.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA