Which "alien" came first?

Question

Which definition came first in the English vocabulary, the "alien" meaning aliens from outer space, or "alien" meaning an immigrant?

Answer 1

Since it is from the Latin, alienus, I'd have to say humans were called aliens long before people thought about the possibility of extraterrestrial travel.

Typically, dictionaries list definitions by the most common usage, so my guess is "foreigners" would be listed before "little green men".

Answer 2

Probably alien meaning immigrant, since there were immigrants before there was science-fiction literature which gave us aliens from outer space.

Answer 3

It just means something unfamiliar, or that's not from the area where you normally are ... for example, there's alien plant-life in many countries because seeds were accidentally or deliberately taken from another country.
Other countries are alien to me, because they're not what I'm used to.
I don't live in my native country, so I'm an alien because I'm not native.
That also means that at first the people around me seemed slightly 'alien' to ME - because everything was so different..!
Anything that comes from another planet is the ultimate alien, because it's not just alien to a few people, or to one country, but it's alien to the entire world!
; )

Answer 4

Alien from outer space aliens, then it was used to refer to immigrants i think

Answer 5

They were once used to describe the same thing: a foreigner, but now that it is possible that there could be life outside of our planet, we call those things "aliens" as well.

Answer 6

Adam

Answer 7

I would guess the second. I would base my guess on the order the senses of the noun are in, in the dictionary.

Answer 8

very interesting I'm going to guess immigrant

Answer 9

first meaning an imigrant

Answer 10

i don't know, good question by the way