The article presents a comparative analysis of the linguistic means of verbalization of the concept of Foreignness in the Russian and English languages, the purpose of which is to identify the common (lexicographic) and occasional (implicit and associative) meanings underlying the linguistic and cultural binary opposition close to someone - foreign . Within the framework of the lexicographic and psycholinguistic approaches, the article studies data extracted from Russian and English interlingual, synonymous, explanatory and associative dictionaries, and national corporas by means of a complex of methods. The investigation is aimed at revealing the synonymous cores objectifying the concept of Foreignness in both the languages. It also determines the explicit and implicit senses, which fulfill the given concept and gives a characteristic of the major linguacultural peculiarities of the concept of FOREIGNNESS reflected in the linguistic consciousnesses of both the ethnic groups. The paper concludes that, firstly, there is a discrepancy between the connotations of the common meanings of the key English synonyms given in the explanatory dictionaries and the connotations of the responses to these synonyms taken as stimuli (in contrast, the Russian key synonyms generally possess neutral connotation); secondly, the main senses forming the concept of Foreignness are examined, and later, through the prism of their key linguacultural peculiarities, an interpretative characteristic of those believed to be foreign by the Russian and British ethnic groups is given.
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