Alienated | Vocabulary | Khan Academy

Hey wordsmiths! Just checking in; you doing okay? The word we're talking about today is "alienated."

"Alienated" it's an adjective and it means feeling excluded and apart from other people. Kind of a bummer word, but at the same time, a fascinating one. I can hear the question I imagine some of you are asking: "David, does this have anything to do with aliens, like from outer space?" And the answer is, well, kind of. It's all the same word!

Follow me, earthlings, to the derivation station! Let's talk about this word's origins. Did it come from outer space? No, it comes from Latin. "Alos" or "Alter" in Latin means different, other. Something that is alien is different, strange, new, and foreign. An alien is someone from another country, or in more modern language, a being from another planet.

And then "-ate" is a verb-forming suffix. It turns nouns and adjectives into action words. This robot is not active; I will activate it. Someone needs to assign a value to this artwork; I will evaluate it. Right, a very powerful suffix!

So let's put this knowledge to work. What are some words you can think of that contain that "al" root, that root that means other, or "-ate," the verb-forming suffix? Okay, here we go, people of Earth!

Music break!

Here are some words that I came up with: altruism, which means caring about other people, doing work for the sake of others; an alias, a word that means an assumed name, another name; and captivate, to capture someone's imagination or attention, to fascinate, to charm.

When you feel alienated, you feel like a stranger in your own country, like all the clocks are running backwards and the world is just wrong. I don't know why I'm trying to explain this to you, wordsmiths. Nobody understands the feeling of alienation better than the young. Alone in a crowd is the vibe.

Basically, let's use "alienated" in some sentences, shall we? The Galactic tourist felt alienated by the strange foodstuffs of this curious new planet. Oh no, the alien feels homesick and sad when they try to eat pizza; they don't know how to do it!

Here's one that hits a little bit closer to home: Noemi didn't get cast in the play, and it left her feeling alienated from her friends who did. There they are in the background, all crowded around the cast list. An awful feeling! All your friends have something to do together after school, and you can't be a part of it because you're not in the play. I certainly don't know what that's like!

Anyway, another word for alienation is estrangement, the feeling of being made strange, being made to feel far away. May you never feel that feeling, wordsmiths! Or if you do, may you never feel it for long. You can learn anything.

David out!