străin

• strein, striin — archaic

Inherited from Latin extrāneus, through a Vulgar Latin intermediate form; the expected normal phonetic result in Romanian from the base Latin word would be *strâi, so it must have come from a derivative form. It is likely that Latin extraneus produced several popular altered variant or derived forms (cf. Italian/Tuscan straino, Calabrian strainu ("without a master")). Several conjectures exist but none have arrived at a definitive and universally accepted etymology: one possibility is through a metathesized form *extrainu (cf. Romanian roib < rubeus, aibă < habeat); other proposals include Latin exterraneus, or *exterrinus, or *extralienus. The now obsolete 16th century derivative astrina, astriirat indicates it is almost surely an inherited term.

• IPA^(key): /strəˈin/
• Rhymes: -in
• Hyphenation: stră‧în

• Audio:

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străin m or n (feminine singular străină, masculine plural străini, feminine and neuter plural străine)

1. foreign, strange

străin m (plural străini)

1. stranger
2. foreigner, alien

• venetic

• înstrăina
• străinătate

• “străin”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2025