Word
outlandish
Phoneticsout·landish
US/aʊtˈɫændɪʃ/
UK/aʊtlˈændɪʃ/
Definition
adj. looking or sounding very strange and unusual, often in a way that is hard to believe.
adj. strikingly out of the ordinary; bizarre or unconventional in appearance, manner, or hypothesis.
Examples
“She wore an outlandish hat with bright purple feathers.”
“The witness gave an outlandish account of the event that the police found difficult to believe.”
“While the scientist's theories were initially dismissed as outlandish, subsequent data from the deep-sea expedition provided the first empirical evidence that his claims were actually grounded in reality.”
Examples
simple
“She wore an outlandish hat with bright purple feathers.”
contextual
“The witness gave an outlandish account of the event that the police found difficult to believe.”
complex
“While the scientist's theories were initially dismissed as outlandish, subsequent data from the deep-sea expedition provided the first empirical evidence that his claims were actually grounded in reality.”
Usage
Often used to describe clothing, ideas, or behavior that violates social norms.
Real-World Examples
“At one event, contestants make their cars look like cartoon characters, subway cars, food, and giant animals (among other outlandish shapes).” “The stories told by Arday about his life are outlandish, but so are some of the stories we are being told about Black people’s position in professional life.” Etymology
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 (suffix forming adjectives from nouns with the sense ‘characteristic of; pertaining to’). Ūtlandą is derived from ūt- (suffix meaning ‘beyond; external to, on the outside of’) (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. Cognates * Danish udenlandsk (“foreign, non-domestic”) * Dutch uitlands (dated) (now buitenlands (“foreign, non-domestic”)), Dutch uitlandig (“absent from the home country”) (now chiefly Suriname) * Faroese útlendskur (“foreign, non-domestic”) * German ausländisch (“foreign, non-domestic”) * Icelandic útlenskur (“foreign”) * Swedish utländsk (“foreign, non-domestic”)
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/outlandish