other

• enPR: ŭth′ər
• (UK)
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈʌðə(ɹ)/, [ˈɐðə(ɹ)]
  • (Northern England) IPA^(key): /ʊðə/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

• (US)
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈʌðɚ/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• (General Australian, General New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈɐðə/, [ˈäðə]

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: oth‧er
• Rhymes: -ʌðə(r)

From Middle English other, from Old English ōþer (“other, second”), 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, øðr-, aðr- (“other, second”), Gothic 𐌰𐌽𐌸𐌰𐍂 (anþar, “other”), Old Prussian anters, antars (“other, second”), Lithuanian antroks (“other”, pronoun), Latvian otrs, otrais (“second”), Russian второ́й (vtorój, “second”), Serbo-Croatian други (“other, second”), Albanian ndërroj (“to change, switch, alternate”), Sanskrit अन्तर (ántara, “different”), Sanskrit अन्य (anyá, “other, different”).

other (comparative more other, superlative most other)

1. See other (determiner) below
2. second.

   I get paid every other week.

3. Alien.
   • 2010 April 20, anonymous, “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.
   • 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.
   • Spenser

     A distaff in her other hand she had.

• (not the one previously referred to): additional, another
• (second): alternate
• (alien): foreign
• (different): different, disparate, dissimilar, distinctive, distinguishable, diverse, unalike, unlike; See also Thesaurus:different
• (left):

• (different): same

• otherish
• otherness
• other rank
• other side

other (plural others)

1. An other one, 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.

   • 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. Lincoln, chapter 6, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     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.

other

1. Not the one or ones previously referred to.

   Other people would do it differently.

   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 4, in The Celebrity:

     The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on an 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.

   • 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest‎:

     “[…] 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, Sleigh, Barbara, Jessamy, 1993 edition, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, →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 examples of usage of this term, see Citations:other.

• same

• this, that, and the other

other (not comparable)

1. Apart from; in the phrase "other than".

   Other than that, I'm fine.

2. (obsolete) Otherwise.

   It shall none other be. — Chaucer.

   If you think other. — Shakespeare.

• another
• otherwise

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, University of Connecticut, The under-representation of Black females:

     [...] 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.

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.

• otherer
• otherness

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

Probably from Old English oþþe. Compare German oder.

other

1. or; synonym of or
   • 1485 July 31, Thomas Malory, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [Le Morte Darthur], (please specify the book number), [London]: […] [by William Caxton], OCLC 71490786; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: Published by David Nutt, […], 1889, OCLC 890162034:

     , Book VII:

     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.

ōther

1. other, not the one previously referred to
2. (ordinal numeral) second

• North Frisian:

  Föhr-Amrum: öler

  Hallig: öör

  Helgoland: uur

  Mooring: ouder

• West Frisian: oar