strange
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: enpr: strānj
ipa: /stɹeɪnd͡ʒ/
rhymes: -eɪndʒ
Forms: form: stranger
form: strangest
Etymology: From Middle English straunge, strange, stronge, from Old French estrange, from Latin extrāneus (“that which is on the outside”). Doublet of extraneous and estrange. Cognate with French étrange (“strange, foreign”) and Spanish extraño (“strange, foreign”). Largely displaced native fremd, selcouth, and uncouth, from Old English fremede, seldcūþ, and uncūþ.
Senses: examples: text: He thought it strange that his girlfriend wore shorts in the winter.
text: I do love nothing in the world so well as you: is not that strange?
ref: 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:
text: Sated at length, ere long I might perceave / Strange alteration in me, to degree / Of Reason in my inward Powers, and Speech / Wanted not long, though to this shape retain’d.
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 598-601:
text: When you're strange / Faces come out of the rain / When you're strange / No one remembers your name
ref: 1967, Robby Krieger, Jim Morrison, “People Are Strange”, performed by The Doors:
antonyms: word: everyday
word: normal
word: regular
word: standard
word: usual
glosses: Not normal; odd, unusual, surprising, out of the ordinary, often with a negative connotation.
examples: text: I moved to a strange town when I was ten.
text: […] here is the hand and seal of the duke: you know the character, I doubt not; and the signet is not strange to you.
ref: c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:
text: 'I'm sure I should have never mentioned anything of the kind to three strange gentlemen if you hadn't dragged it out of me.'
ref: 1934, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in Murder on the Orient Express, London: HarperCollins, published 2017, page 105:
text: She's probably sitting there hoping a couple of strange detectives will drop in.
ref: 1955 October, Rex Stout, “The Next Witness”, in Three Witnesses, Bantam, published 1994, →ISBN, pages 48–49:
synonyms: word: new
word: unfamiliar
word: unknown
word: ignote
word: knownless
word: strange
word: obscure
word: unascertained
word: unapprehended
word: undiscovered
word: unexplained
word: unfamiliar
word: uninvestigated
word: unknown
word: unrecognized
word: unrevealed
antonyms: familiar
known
glosses: Unfamiliar, not yet part of one's experience.
examples: text: When AIDS and Herpes hit the street Talib stopped fucking with strange pussy and stray pussy. Bitches had a ways to go to match Malikah in bed anyway. With her there was that extra element of real love that heightened sex […]
ref: 2006, Black Butch Malone, Streetwise: N.Y. YO, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 47:
text: Arnett might have come to Boston to eat baked beans, get some strange ass, or stick up the First New England Trust, the motive mattered little to him—whatever the boss wanted to do was jake-okay by him. Besides, being on overtime for ...
ref: 2009, David Karcher, Winter Kill, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 239:
text: "You just need some strange dick, that's all.” Maureen rolled her eyes and gave her friend an exasperated look. “I'm a married woman, Catty.” “Uh-huh! I knew somethin' like this was goin' to happen after you married Mel."
ref: 2014, Mary Monroe, Lost Daughters, Kensington Books, →ISBN:
text: The future mother of his child was not going out and getting laid by some strange dick. He'd tie her to his bed before he let that happen.
ref: 2021, Ellis O. Day, The Billionaire's Baby, LSODea, →ISBN:
qualifier: genitals; etc; genitals; etc
glosses: Outside of one's current relationship; unfamiliar.
raw_tags: of sex
examples: text: A strange quark is electrically charged, carrying an amount -1/3, as does the down quark.
ref: 2004, Frank Close, Particle Physics: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, page 93:
topics: natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
hypernyms: flavor
glosses: Having the quantum mechanical property of strangeness.
topics: mathematics
sciences
glosses: Of an attractor: having a fractal structure.
examples: text: I take goyng thither [to Italy], and liuing there, for a yonge ientleman, that doth not goe vnder the kepe and garde of such a man, as both, by wisedome can, and authoritie dare rewle him, to be meruelous dangerous […] not bicause I do contemne, either the knowledge of strange and diuerse tonges, and namelie the Italian tonge […] or else bicause I do despise, the learning that is gotten […]
ref: a. 1569 (date written), Roger Ascham, edited by Margaret Ascham, The Scholemaster: Or Plaine and Perfite Way of Teaching Children, to Vnderstand, Write, and Speake, the Latin Tong, […], London: […] John Daye, […], published 1570, →OCLC:
text: […] one of the strange queen’s lords.
ref: c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:
text: How shall we sing the Lords song: in a strange land?
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 137:4:
text: I could not see the [Russian] Embassador in his coach; but his attendants in their habits and fur caps very handsome, comely men […] But Lord! to see the absurd nature of Englishmen, that cannot forbear laughing and jeering at every thing that looks strange.
ref: 1662 December 7 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, transcriber, “November 27th, 1662”, in Henry B[enjamin] Wheatley, editor, The Diary of Samuel Pepys […], volume II, London: George Bell & Sons […]; Cambridge: Deighton Bell & Co., published 1893, →OCLC, page 377:
synonyms: word: alien
word: outlandish
word: acquired
word: additional
word: adventitious
word: alien
word: ascititious
word: extraneous
word: foreign
word: fremd
word: intrusive
word: outlandish
word: strange
word: supplemental
glosses: Belonging to another country; foreign.
examples: text: Good signiors both, when shall we laugh? say, when? / You grow exceeding strange: must it be so?
ref: c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
text: She may be strange and shy at first, but will soon learn to love thee!
ref: 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter 19, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC, page 253:
synonyms: word: distant
word: standoffish
word: aloof
word: cool
word: distant
word: frosty
word: hankty
word: hard-to-get
word: offish
word: quiet
word: remote
word: reserved
word: standoffish
word: strange
word: thorny
word: touch-me-not-ish
word: unapproachable
word: unbending
word: undemonstrative
word: unimpressionable
word: uninvolved
glosses: Reserved; distant in deportment.
examples: text: That to his name your barrenneſſe adds rule; / VVho louing the effect, vvould not be ſtrange / In fauoring the cause; looke on the profit, / And gaine vvill quickly point the miſchiefe out.
ref: c. 1607–1621 (date written), [Francis Beaumont; John Fletcher; Philip Massinger], The Tragedy of Thierry King of France, and His Brother Theodoret. […], London: […] [Nicholas Okes] for Thomas Walkley, […], published 1621, →OCLC, Act III, scene i:
glosses: Backward; slow.
examples: text: I know thee well; / But in thy fortunes am unlearn’d and strange.
ref: c. 1605–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:
synonyms: word: green
word: unversed
word: callow
word: experienceless
word: inexperienced
word: unexperienced
word: fresh
word: green
word: new
word: pup
word: raw
word: strange
word: unpracticed
word: unseasoned
word: unversed
glosses: Not familiar; unaccustomed; inexperienced.
topics: law
glosses: Not belonging to one.
Synonyms: word: aberrant
word: abnormal
word: alien
word: anomalous
word: as queer as Dick's hatband
word: bizarre
word: curious
word: deviant
word: discrepant
word: eerie
word: eldritch
word: errant
word: exceptional
word: extraordinary
word: fey
word: forby
word: freak
word: freakish
word: freaky
word: fremd
word: funny
word: heteroclite
word: hinky
word: incongruous
word: incongruitous
word: irregular
word: kooky
word: monstrous
word: nonstandard
word: odd
word: outlandish
word: out of the ordinary
word: outré
word: peculiar
word: quaint
word: queer
word: queer as a clockwork orange
word: queer as a nine bob note
word: queer as a three dollar bill
word: queer as a coot
word: queer as Dick's hatband
word: rare
word: rum
word: rummy
word: selcouth
word: seld
word: singular
word: strange
word: trippy
word: uncanny
word: uncommon
word: unconventional
word: unearthly
word: unexpected
word: unreasonable
word: unusual
word: unwonted
word: weird
word: weirdsome
word: yampy
Hyponyms: word: eccentric
word: gorky
word: quirky
word: strange-ass
word: unorthodox
word: weird-ass
Derived terms: bestrange
fact is stranger than fiction
like a cat in a strange garret
make strange
strange as it may seem
strange bedfellow
strange bird
strange fruit
strange-horned toad
strangelet
strangeling
strangely
strange matter
strange minds think alike
strangen
strangeness
strangeonium
strange quark
strange star
strange to say
strange woman
truth is stranger than fiction
Related terms: word: estrange
word: estranged
word: stranger
word: outlier
word: there's nowt so queer as folk
word: crooked