A profound sense of disconnection, isolation, or estrangement from others, society, or even oneself. It involves feeling like an outsider, misunderstood, or fundamentally different from those around you.
From Latin 'alienus' meaning 'belonging to another,' originally used in legal contexts for transferring property. The psychological meaning developed through existentialism and sociology in the 19th-20th centuries, describing the modern human condition of feeling disconnected from community and meaning.
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