other

Etymology

From Middle English other, from Old English ōþer (“other, second”), from Proto-West Germanic *ą̄þar, *anþar, from Proto-Germanic *anþeraz (“other, second”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂énteros (“other”).

Cognate with Scots uther, ither (“other”), Old Frisian ōther, ("other"; > North Frisian üđer, ööder, ouder), Old Saxon ōthar (“other”), Old High German ander (“other”), Old Norse annarr, ǫðr-, aðr- (“other, second”), Gothic 𐌰𐌽𐌸𐌰𐍂 (anþar, “other”), Old Prussian anters, antars (“other, second”), Lithuanian antroks (“other”, pronoun), Latvian otrs, otrais (“second”), Macedonian втор (vtor, "second"), Albanian ndërroj (“to change, switch, alternate”), Sanskrit अन्तर (ántara, “different”)

French autre, Spanish otro, Portuguese outro, etc., all from Latin alter, are false cognates.

Pronunciation

• enPR: ŭth′ər
• (UK)
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈʌðə/

    • Audio (Received Pronunciation):

      (file)

    • Audio (London):

      (file)

  • (Northern England) IPA^(key): /ʊðə/
  • (Scotland, Northern Ireland) IPA^(key): /ˈʌðəɹ/
• (US)
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈʌðɚ/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (General Australian, New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈɐðə/
• (Ireland) IPA^(key): /ˈʊðəɹ/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈʌðəɹ/
  • (Ottawa Valley) IPA^(key): [ˈʌðəɹ], [ˈɔd̪əɹ], [ˈʊɾəɹ]
• Hyphenation: oth‧er
• Rhymes: -ʌðə(ɹ)
• Homophone: udder (th-stopping)

Adjective

other (not comparable)

1. See other (determiner) below.

   Synonyms: additional, another

2. Second.

   Synonym: alternate

   I get paid every other week.

3. Alien.

   Synonym: foreign

   • 2010 April 20, anonymous author, “Letters”, in Christian Century, volume 127, number 8, page 6:

     In Matthew's account, the law remains intact, as does virtually everything except that critical belief in Jesus as the Messiah (obviously no small thing), and this is not enough to make Matthew completely other from its Jewish origins.

4. Different.

   Synonyms: disparate, dissimilar, distinctive, distinguishable, diverse; see also Thesaurus:different

   Antonym: same

   • 2001 Fall, Ralph C. Hancock, “The Modern Revolution and the Collapse of Moral Analogy: Tocqueville and Guizot.”, in Perspectives on Political Science, volume 30, number 4, page 213:

     it is inherent, rather, in the revolutionary attempt of the West to externalize the idea of a source of meaning wholly other than what is embodied in human conventions and hierarchies.

5. (obsolete) Left, as opposed to right.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, stanza 36, page 351:

     A diſtaffe in her other hand ſhe had, / Vpon the which ſhe litle ſpinnes, but ſpils, / And faynes to weaue falſe tales and leaſings bad, / To throw amongſt the good, which others had diſprad.

Noun

other (plural others)

1. An other, another (person, etc), more often rendered as another.

   I'm afraid little Robbie does not always play well with others.

2. The other one; the second of two.

   One boat is not better than the other.

   Why not tell one or other of your parents?

   • 1699, William Temple, Heads designed for an essay on conversations‎:

     Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.

   • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VI, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

     He had one hand on the bounce bottle—and he'd never let go of that since he got back to the table—but he had a handkerchief in the other and was swabbing his deadlights with it.

Determiner

other

1. Not the one or ones previously referred to.

   Other people would do it differently.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 58:

     The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on a certain afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track. The three returned wondering and charmed with Mrs. Cooke; they were sure she had had no hand in the furnishing of that atrocious house.

   • 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:

     “ […] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes like
       Here's rattling good luck and roaring good cheer, / With lashings of food and great hogsheads of beer. […] ”

   • 1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 98:

     “By the way,” Jessamy went on, “what’s your other name? You never told me.” “Stubbs,” said Billy, “William Stubbs!”.

   • 2013 July 20, “Out of the gloom”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:

     [Rural solar plant] schemes are of little help to industry or other heavy users of electricity. Nor is solar power yet as cheap as the grid. For all that, the rapid arrival of electric light to Indian villages is long overdue. When the national grid suffers its next huge outage, as it did in July 2012 when hundreds of millions were left in the dark, look for specks of light in the villages.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:other.

Adverb

other (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Otherwise.
   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], page 331, column 1:

     I durst, my lord, to wager she is honest, Lay down my soul at state; if you think other, Remove your thought;

   • 1655, The Compleat Ambassador or two treatises of the intended marriage of Queen Elizabeth of glorious memory, page 321:

     Weigh also, the pretty escape of the disguised attempt of the party that seemed to be in so great peril, who can believe other, then that it was a made matter, to continue a belief, whom they think they have inchaunted at their wills.

   • 1740, William Temple, Letters written by Sir William Temple, bart., and other ministers of state, both at home and abroad, page 184:

     That he knew from Monsieur Meerman, I had been the occasion of giving him any Credit in England of an honest sincere Man, and he would never lose mine upon that occasion by giving the King Cause to believe other of him.

Verb

other (third-person singular simple present others, present participle othering, simple past and past participle othered)

1. (transitive) To regard, label, or treat as an "other", as not part of the same group; to view as different and alien.
   • 2005, Kristen A. Myers, Racetalk: racism hiding in plain sight:

     "Rican" is code for its homonym, "redskin," through which they othered this non-Mexican ethnic group.

   • 2006, Angela Pattatucci Aragon, Challenging lesbian norms:

     That is, whilst Lesfest organisers are othering women who are not born female (thus producing a kind of lesbian-normativity), the Australian WOMAN Network is othering women who have not had surgical sex reassignment (thus producing a kind of "trans-normativity").

   • 2008, John F. Borland, The under-representation of Black females in NCAA Division I women's basketball head coaching positions‎, University of Connecticut:

     […] and Black males have not taken her seriously politically (gender); and the color of her skin has marginalized her (race and "othered" her when compared with White women, who have also worked to silence her political views.

   • 2010, Ronald L. Jackson, I, Encyclopedia of Identity:

     Others with admitted addictions are Othered and sadly, forever stigmatized.

   • 2024 February 16, Colette Coleman, “Blaxit: Tired of Racism, Black Americans Try Life in Africa”, in The New York Times‎, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:

     “You’re coming here and you’re expecting that everybody’s Black, so I’m going to be OK,” Ms. Davis said. “But then you get here and then you’re being ‘othered’” — viewed as different and separate.

     (Can we archive this URL?)

2. (transitive) To treat as different or separate; segregate; ostracise.
   • 2007, Christopher Emdin, City University of New York. Urban Education, Exploring the contexts of urban science classrooms:

     In this scenario, the young lady who had spoken had been othered by her peers and her response to my question had been dismissed as invalid despite the fact that she was alright.

Anagrams

• threo-, Toher, heort-, thero-, throe, hetro, Rothe, rothe

Etymology

From Old English ōþer. Compare German oder.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈuðər/, /ˈoːðər/

Conjunction

other

1. or; synonym of or
   • 1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book VII, [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485, →OCLC; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: David Nutt, […], 1889, →OCLC:

     And if that I had nat had my prevy thoughtis to returne to youre love agayne as I do, I had sene as grete mysteryes as ever saw my sonne Sir Galahad other Percivale, other Sir Bors.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Adjective

other

1. other

Pronoun

other

1. other

Adverb

other

1. otherwise
   • 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Reues Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, →OCLC, folio xviii, recto, column 1, line 5:

     […] it ſhal none other be.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

References

• “ọ̄̆ther, pron.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
• “ọ̄̆ther, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Alternative forms

• ōr (Old West Frisian)

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *anþar, from Proto-Germanic *anþeraz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂énteros. Cognates include Old English ōþer, Old Saxon ōthar and Old Dutch andar.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈoːðer/

Adjective

cat2=ordinal numbers

ōther

1. other
2. second

Pronoun

other

1. Alternative form of oother
   • 1867, “DR. RUSSELL ON THE INHABITANTS AND DIALECT OF THE BARONY OF FORTH”, in APPENDIX:

     Fad didn'st thou cum t' ouz on zum other dey?

     [Why didn't you come to us on some other day?]

References

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 131