ENGLISH
REFERENCE

outlandish

adj.
C1 Advanced US //aʊtˈɫændɪʃ// UK //aʊtlˈændɪʃ// out·landish Archaic Vulgar

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.


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.

Synonyms
Origin

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”)

Usage

Often used to describe clothing, ideas, or behavior that violates social norms.

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