Radical: alien-.
1. al'ien: from alienus by dropping the termination us. DEFINITION: a foreigner, one owing allegiance to another country than that in which he is living.
2. al'ienate: alien + ate = to cause something to be transferred to another: hence, (1) to transfer title or property to another; (2) to estrange, to withdraw.
3. inal'ienable: in + alien + able = that may not be given to another.
EXERCISE.
(1.) Combine and define alien + age.—Can an alien be elected President of the United States? [See the Constitution, Article II. Sec. I. Clause 5.]—What is the word which expresses the process by which a person is changed from an alien to a citizen?
(2.) Combine and define alienate + ion.—Give a synonym of "alienate" in its second sense. Ans. To estrange.—What is meant by saying that "the oppressive measures of the British government gradually alienated the American colonies from the mother country"?
(3.) Quote a passage from the Declaration of Independence containing the word "inalienable."