Feeling isolated, separated, or emotionally distant from others or from society.
From Latin 'alienatus,' past participle of 'alienare' (to transfer ownership, estrange). The prefix 'alien-' means foreign or strange. The meaning shifted from legal/property concepts to psychological distance in the 19th century.
Karl Marx used 'alienation' to describe how factory workers felt disconnected from their labor and products—this concept became central to 20th-century social criticism and psychology, influencing everything from Marxism to existentialism.
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