other
UK /ˈʌðə/ · US /ˈʌðɚ/ adjective, noun, determiner, adverb, verb, proper noun
Forms others othering othered the Other
- adjective See other (determiner) below. “Pick up the phone and find out who's on the other end.”
- adjective Second. “I get paid every other week.”
- adjective (formal) Alien.
- adjective (formal or puristic) Different.
- adjective (obsolete) Left, as opposed to right.
- noun An other, another (person, etc), more often rendered as another. “I'm afraid little Robbie does not always play well with others.”
- noun The other one; the second of two. “One boat is not better than the other.”
- determiner Not the one or ones previously referred to. “Earning less than $2,000 a month, I have no other source of income except for gifts from relatives.”
- adverb (obsolete) Otherwise.
- verb (transitive) To regard, label, or treat as an “other”, as not part of the same group; to view as different and alien.
- verb (transitive) To treat as different or separate; segregate; ostracise.
- proper noun (philosophy, psychoanalysis) Radical alterity or otherness conceived or reified as a separate entity; “other people” altogether in their difference from oneself.
- proper noun A surname.
- proper noun A male given name from Old Norse, of rare usage, used as an aristocratic heritage familial given name.
Synonyms
additional another alternate foreign disparate dissimilar distinctive distinguishable diverse different differing unalike unlike early former
Antonyms
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 ouder, öler, üđer, Saterland Frisian uur, West Frisian oar), Old Saxon ōthar, ("other"; > Low German anner), Old Dutch āthar, ("other"; > Afrikaans ander, Dutch ander), Old High German andar, ("other"; > Cimbrian andar, German ander, anderer, Luxembourgish aner, Mòcheno ònder, Yiddish אַנדער (ander)), Old Norse annarr, ("other"; > Danish anden, Faroese annar, Icelandic annar, Jamtish æðnen, ænnen, Norwegian Bokmål annen, Norwegian Nynorsk annan, Swedish annan), 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; to switch; to alternate”), Sanskrit अन्त॑र (ántara, “different”).
French autre, Spanish otro, Portuguese outro, etc., all from Latin alter, are false cognates. A true cognate would be Latin anterior.
Calque of French autre (other). Semantic loan from French Autre, principally after French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan (also as grand Autre) and philosopher Emmanuel Levinas.
From Old Norse Othorere, originating during the Viking occupation of England.
Webster’s 1913
- Either; --used with other or or for its correlative (as either . . . or are now used). [Obs.]
- pronoun Different from that which, or the one who, has been specified; not the same; not identical; additional; second of two. Each of them made other for to win. Chaucer.
- pronoun Not this, but the contrary; opposite; as, the other side of a river.
- adverb Otherwise. "It shall none other be." Chaucer. "If you think other." Shak.
Etymology [See Or.]
Etymology [AS. ; akin to OS. a, , D. & G. ander, OHG. andar, Icel. annarr, Sw. annan, Dan. anden, Goth. an, Skr. antara: cf. L. alter; all orig. comparatives: cf. Skr. anya other. sq. root180. Cf. Alter.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “other”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details