Other forms: strangers
A stranger is a person you have never met. The one who asks you for directions, or sits down opposite on the train.
English builds a lot of caution round the word, from warnings given to children to the phrase the kindness of strangers, which works precisely because it is unexpected. It has a second use meaning somebody unfamiliar with a place or a thing, as in he is no stranger to hard work. And there is a greeting for somebody you have not seen in ages, which is simply hello, stranger.
1nounstrangerSomeone you do not know.~90%
“A stranger stopped to help with the case.”
2noununfamiliarSomeone unfamiliar with a place or experience.~10%
“She is no stranger to long hours.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 10 sentences found in the wild and placed 10 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
A stranger is somebody from outside. Latin extraneus, external, is built on extra, outside of, so the word describes where a person stands rather than how little you know them.
Middle English
straunger
English, today
stranger
Built from
From Middle English straunger. From Middle English straunger, from Old French estrangier (“foreign, alien”), from estrange, from Latin extraneus (“foreign, external”) (whence also English estrange), from extra (“outside of”). Cognate with French étranger (“foreigner, stranger”) and Spanish extranjero (“foreigner”). Displaced native fremde.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA