Advertisement

other (adj., pron.)

Old English oþer "second, the second of two; additional, further" (adj.), also as a pronoun, "one of the two; a different person or thing from the one in view," from Proto-Germanic *anthera- (source also of Old Saxon athar, Old Frisian other, Old Norse annarr, Middle Dutch and Dutch ander, Old High German andar, German ander, Gothic anþar "second, other").

These are from PIE *an-tero-(source of Lithuanian antras, Old Prussian anters "other, second), which is perhaps a variant of *al-tero- "the other of two" (source of Latin alter), from root *al- "beyond" + adjectival comparative suffix *-tero-.  Or the first element might be the pronoun *eno-, *ono- [Boutkan]. The Old English, Old Saxon, and Old Frisian forms show "a normal loss of n before fricatives" [Barnhart].

The sense of "second" was detached from this word in English (which now uses second (adj.), which is from Latin) and German (zweiter, from zwei "two") to avoid ambiguity. In Scandinavian, however, the second floor is still the "other" floor (Swedish andra, Danish anden). Also compare Old English oþergeara "next year."

As an adverb, "secondly" (late Old English); "otherwise" (c. 1200); "in addition" (mid-14c.).

The other woman "a woman with whom a man begins a love affair while he is already committed" is from 1855. The other day originally (late Old English) was "the next day;" later (c. 1300) "yesterday;" and now, loosely, "a day or two ago" (early 15c.). OED notes that the other place was euphemistic for Hell or "Oxford as regarded in Cambridge (and vice versa)." Phrase other half in reference to either the poor or the rich, is recorded from c. 1600.

La moitié du monde ne sçayt comment l'aultre vit. [Rabelais, "Pantagruel," 1532]

Halfe the world knowes not how the other halfe li[v]es. [George Herbert, "Outlandish Proverbs," 1640]

Others are reading

Advertisement
Advertisement
Definitions of other from WordNet

other (adj.)
recently past;
the other evening
other (adj.)
belonging to the distant past;
in other times
Synonyms: early / former
other (adj.)
not the same one or ones already mentioned or implied; "today isn't any other day"- the White Queen;
she lived on the other side of the street from me
hearing was good in his other ear
his other books are still in storage
the construction of highways and other public works
any other person would tell the truth
the other sex
went in the other direction
he asked for other employment
then we looked at the other house
other (adj.)
very unusual; different in character or quality from the normal or expected; "a strange, other dimension...where his powers seemed to fail"- Lance Morrow;
From wordnet.princeton.edu