Strange
Pronunciation
- enPR: strÄnj, IPA: /streɪndÊ’/
Origin
From Middle English strange, from Old French estrange, from Latin extraneus, "that which is on the outside". Displaced native Middle English fremd, frempt ("strange") (from Old English fremede, fremde).
Full definition of strange
Adjective
strange
- Not normal; odd, unusual, surprising, out of the ordinary.He thought it strange that his girlfriend wore shorts in the winter.
- MiltonSated at length, erelong I might perceive
Strange alteration in me. - Unfamiliar, not yet part of one's experience.I moved to a strange town when I was ten.
- ShakespeareHere is the hand and seal of the duke; you know the character, I doubt not; and the signet is not strange to you.
- 1955, Rex Stout, "The Next Witness", in , October 1994 edition, ISBN 0553249592, pages 48–49:She's probably sitting there hoping a couple of strange detectives will drop in.
- (physics) Having the quantum mechanical property of strangeness.
- 2004 Frank Close, Particle Physics: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, page 93:A strange quark is electrically charged, carrying an amount -1/3, as does the down quark.
- (obsolete) Belonging to another country; foreign.
- Shakespeareone of the strange queen's lords
- AschamI do not contemn the knowledge of strange and divers tongues.
- (obsolete) Reserved; distant in deportment.
- ShakespeareShe may be strange and shy at first, but will soon learn to love thee.
- (obsolete) Backward; slow.
- Beaumont and FletcherWho, loving the effect, would not be strange
In favouring the cause. - (obsolete) Not familiar; unaccustomed; inexperienced.
- ShakespeareIn thy fortunes am unlearned and strange.