An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/fremd

by Friedrich Kluge

fremd, adjective, ‘strange, foreign, unfamiliar, peculiar,’ from Middle High German vręmede, vręmde, ‘foreign, distant, strange, singular, rare,’ Old High German framadi, fręmidi, ‘foreign, singular’; a common Teutonic adjective for ‘foreign,’ unknown only to Scandinavian; compare Gothic framaþs, ‘foreign, estranged, excluded from,’ Anglo-Saxon fręmþe, fręmde, ‘foreign, alien, estranged’ (English obsolete), Old Saxon fręmithi, Dutch vreemd. A derivative of the stem appearing in the Gothic preposition fram, ‘far from,’ Anglo-Saxon and English from, Old High German fram, adverb, ‘away, forward.’