Outlandish means strange and unfamiliar to the point of absurdity. An outlandish claim, outlandish clothes, frankly outlandish.
It is dismissive: calling a claim outlandish says it is too strange to take seriously. The origin is plain and worth knowing — the Old English word meant foreign, from out-land, so outlandish literally means from another country, and the slide from foreign to absurd is the whole history of the word.
1adjectiveoutlandishStrange and unfamiliar to the point of absurdity.
“He came to the party in an outlandish costume made of tinfoil and feathers.”
synonyms: bizarre, preposterous
outlandish is a quality of strangeness.
Old English utlendisc means foreign, from ut, out, plus land. The sense of absurdity grew out of the sense of foreignness.
Proto-Indo-European
*lendʰ-
Proto-Indo-European
*úd — away; out, outward; upwards
Proto-Germanic
*ūtlandiskaz
Proto-West Germanic
*ūtlandisk
Old English
ūtlendisċ — foreign; strange, outlandish
Middle English
outlandisch
English, today
outlandish
Built from
The adjective is derived from Middle English outlandisch, outlondish (“foreign”), from Old English ūtlendisċ (“foreign; strange, outlandish”), from Proto-West Germanic ūtlandisk, from Proto-Germanic ūtlandiskaz, from ūtlandą (“(adjective) alien, foreign; relating to outlying land; (noun) foreign land; outlying land”) + -iskaz. Ūtlandą is derived from ūt- (from Proto-Indo-European úd (“away; out, outward; upwards”)) + landą (“area of ground, land”) (from Proto-Indo-European lendʰ- (“heath; land”)). by surface analysis, outland + -ish. The noun is derived from the adjective. 2
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA