fremder

Fremder is a German noun meaning a person who is not known to a group or who comes from outside a particular place. It refers to someone unfamiliar to others, such as a visitor or a person one does not recognize. The term can carry a neutral sense, as in simply describing an unknown person, or a more charged sense depending on context, implying distance, difference, or suspicion.

Etymology and forms: Fremder derives from the German adjective fremd, meaning foreign or unfamiliar. The suffix -er forms a noun for a person associated with being fremd. In use, the word has a masculine form (der Fremder) with a plural (die Fremden) and can appear in both descriptive and narrative contexts.

Usage notes: In everyday German, Fremder is common for encounters in public spaces, as in Ein Fremder trat in den Raum. It also appears in compound phrases such as fremder Ort or fremde Länder to describe foreign places or unfamiliar surroundings. Der Fremde can be used when referring to a specific stranger in a story or situation.

Cultural references: Der Fremde is the German title for Albert Camus’s novella The Stranger (L'Étranger), a work frequently discussed in philosophy and literary studies for its themes of alienation and existentialism. Beyond literature, the concept of the Fremder is a recurring motif in art, film, and sociocultural discourse to denote outsiders or individuals from different backgrounds.

See also: Fremde, Fremdheit.