Recently, I began thinking about the phrase foreign object and got to wondering about the pedigree. Because of current usage (such as in medicine, chemistry, cooking, and raslin’), I supposed that the etymological ancestor of “foreign” would encompass some concept of “unwelcome” in connection with the concept of “alien”, but instead I learned all about the outdoors, and, surprisingly, about its relationship to blood spatter analysis.

foreign … ME foreine or forene: OF-F – forain (f foraine): LL foranus, situated on the outside, esp beyond one’s own country: an -anus, adj from fores, foris, out of doors, hence abroad, from *fora, a door, -- akin to L foris (ooc fores), pl fores, doors, esp outer doors: IE r, *dhwer-, cf DOOR.

Akin to L foris is L forum, a market-place (out of doors), the centre of public business: adopted by E.

Forum has adj forensic, of the forum as the orig centre of law business; hence forensic, legal – esp in relation to speech.

The L adv foris, outside, has LL derivative forestis, usu in silua (ML silva) forestis, a wood outside, hence for the use of all, hence, by ellipsis, the ML n forestis, a wood, a forest, whence OF-MF forest (F foret), adopted by ME; but app the ML silva forestis or forestis silva was orig applied, in so far as OF is concerned, to Charlemagne’s royal forest, with forestis deriving – cf forensic – from forum in its special early ML sense “court of the King’s justice”.(B & W) Hence OF-F forestier, whence E forester, orig a forest warden; and MF-EF foresterie, whence E forestry.

-- Origins A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English

And another source points to yet another branch of meaning on this particular tree:

FOREIGN, out of doors, strange. (F. – L.) The insertion of the g is unmeaning. ME. foreine, foreyne, Chaucer, tr. of Boethius … OF, forain, “forraine, strange, alien;” … Folk-L., *foranus, for Late L., foraneus, applied to a canon who is not in residence, or to a traveling pedlar …

-- Etymological Dictionary of the English Language

Charles Funk expanded on the unmeaning insertion of the g:

… The original [French term for outsiders, when imported into England] forain became, at first, forein; then some one in the sixteenth century, probably an ignoramus thinking to exhibit great learning, stuck a meaningless g in the word, mistakenly influenced by “deign” and “reign,” perhaps.

-- Thereby Hangs a Tale

(Go ahead, Charles. Tell us how you really feel …)

Webster’s Unabridged, Second Edition (1970) listed five definitions for foreign: (1) situated outside one’s own country; (2) of, from, characteristic of or dealing with another country; (3) coming from or having to do with another person or thing not originating in the person or thing specified; (4) not organically connected, not naturally related; (5) excluded; held at a distance.

In addition, Webster’s listed these related phrases: foreign affairs, foreign attachment, foreign bill of exchange, foreign born, foreign built, foreign correspondent, foreign exchange, foreign legion, foreign minister, foreign mission, and foreign office.

Note that the concept of “unwelcome” did not seem to be encompassed in any of the definitions in 1970. By 1989, however, Webster’s definitions included:

foreign … 11. alien in character; irrelevant or inappropriate …

Ah ha!

But still no listing for foreign object. Instead, I found discussions of the implications of “foreign object” in various online resources, such as this from a veterinary medicine site:

A foreign object, just to be clear, is not an object that was manufactured in China or France. A foreign object is something contained within a part of the body in which it does not belong (usually the gastrointestinal tract), and can result in what is medically termed a "foreign body obstruction." Foreign material that is ingested but is not substantial enough to cause an obstruction (mulch, pebbles, or sand, for example) can lead to other problems, such as enteritis. A partial obstruction may be associated with intermittent periods of abnormal signs. However, complete gastrointestinal obstructions, on the other hand, lead to acute and often intense symptoms.

-- http://www.vetcentric.com/magazine/magazineArticle.cfm?ARTICLEID=1350

But my favorite discovery was from the world of professional wrestling – or, as it should be termed, raslin’. From the Professional Wrestling Online Museum:

international object n. Foreign object, something now [sic; not] allowed in the ring. Derived from an order not to use the world "foreign" by the Turner Broadcasting Company.
-- http://www.wrestlingmuseum.com/pages/resources/glossary.html

So, so very soon after it’s recognition in a dictionary, the phrase foreign object is deemed politically incorrect.



And so ends my musing. Talk amongst yourselves.