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either

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: eiþer

English

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Etymology

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From Middle English either, from Old English ǣġhwæþer, from Proto-West Germanic *aiw + *gahwaþar. Akin to Old Saxon eogihwethar, iahwethar (Low German jeed); Old Dutch *iogewether, *iowether, *iother (Dutch ieder); Old High German eogihwedar, iegihweder, ieweder (German jeder).

The pronunciations with /iː/ and /eɪ/ respectively reflect Middle English forms in /ɛː/ and /æi/; the origin of that with /aɪ/ is less clear, but it may reflect a Middle English form with /iː/; see Middle English either for more discussion.

Pronunciation

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In the UK, /aɪ/ is used more in Southern England, and /iː/ is more usual in Northern England. In North America, /iː/ is most common, but /aɪ/ is predominant in some regions. Note that even if one pronunciation is more common in a region, the pronunciation used varies by individual speaker and sometimes by situation. /eɪ/ was once heard in Northern England, but has now largely fallen into disuse.[1]

Determiner

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either

  1. Any one (of two).
    Coordinate terms: each; both
    You can have it in either colour.
  2. Each of two; both. [from 9th c.]
    There is a locomotive at either end of the train, one pulling and the other pushing.
    There are roses on either side of the garden.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book III”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
      His flowing hair
      In curls on either cheek played.
    • 1936, Djuna Barnes, Nightwood, Faber & Faber, published 2007, page 31:
      Her hands, long and beautiful, lay on either side of her face.
  3. (often proscribed) Any one (of more than two).
    • Jonathan Swift (1726), Gulliver's Travels, 1st edition:
      I hope you will be ready to own publicly, whenever you shall be called to it, that by your great and frequent urgency you prevailed on me to publish a very loose and uncorrect account of my travels, with directions to hire some young gentleman of either university to put them in order, and correct the style, as my cousin Dampier did, by my advice, in his book called “A Voyage round the world.”
    • 1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter LI”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; [a]nd sold by John Osborn, […], →OCLC:
      They entreat, they pray, they beg, they supplicate (will either of these do, Miss Clary?) that you will make no scruple to go to your uncle Antony's […] .

Usage notes

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  • When there are more than two alternatives, in the sense of “one of several” or “one of many”, any is now often used instead. Use of either with more than two (mutually exclusive) options remains common informally,[2] but a usage prescription against it is so widely known that it is usually avoided formally. This fact about either […] or is likewise true of neither […] nor.

Translations

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Pronoun

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either

  1. One or the other of two people or things.
    He made me two offers, but I did not accept either.
    • 2013 September 7, Daniel Taylor, “Danny Welbeck leads England's rout of Moldova but hit by Ukraine ban”, in The Guardian‎[1]:
      Hodgson may now have to bring in James Milner on the left and, on that basis, a certain amount of gloss was taken off a night on which Welbeck scored twice but barely celebrated either before leaving the pitch angrily complaining to the Slovakian referee.
  2. (obsolete) Both, each of two or more.
    • a. 1627 (date written), Francis [Bacon], “Considerations Touching a Warre with Spaine. […]”, in William Rawley, editor, Certaine Miscellany Works of the Right Honourable Francis Lo. Verulam, Viscount S. Alban. […], London: […] I. Hauiland for Humphrey Robinson, […], published 1629, →OCLC:
      Scarce a palm of ground could be gotten by either of the three.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
      And either vowd with all their power and wit, / To let not others honour be defaste […]
    • 1872, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., The Poet at the Breakfast-Table:
      There have been three famous talkers in Great British, either of whom would illustrate what I say about dogmatists.

Adverb

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either (not comparable)

  1. (conjunctive, after a negative) As well.
    I don't like him, and I don't like her either.
    I know a cheap Spanish restaurant. It's not far from here, either.
    • 1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax:
      But Richmond […] appeared to lose himself in his own reflections. Some pickled crab, which he had not touched, had been removed with a damson pie; and his sister saw […] that he had eaten no more than a spoonful of that either.

Usage notes

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After a positive statement, too is commonly used: “I like him, and I like her too.”

Either is sometimes used, especially in North American English, where neither would be more traditionally accurate: “I’m not hungry.” “Me either.”

Translations

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Conjunction

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either

  1. Introduces the first of two (or occasionally more) options or possibilities, the second (or last) of which is introduced by "or".
    Either you eat your dinner or you go to your room.
    You can have either potatoes or rice with that, but not both.
    You'll be either early, late, or on time.
    Either you'll finish your homework or you'll be grounded.
    • 2006 December 5, Jackie Mason, quotee, “Mason drops lawsuit vs. Jews for Jesus”, in USA Today:
      You can't be a table and a chair. You're either a Jew or a gentile.
    • 1893, Walter Besant, “Prologue”, in The Ivory Gate:
      Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language […] his clerks […] understood him very well. If he had written a love letter, or a farce, or a ballade, or a story, no one, either clerks, or friends, or compositors, would have understood anything but a word here and a word there.

Synonyms

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Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Derived terms

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terms derived from all parts of speech

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Pronunciation: Either". Reader's Digest. (1964). The Complete Atlas of the British Isles, p. 123.
  2. ^ Pullum, Geoffrey K. (2024), The Truth About English Grammar, Polity Press, →ISBN, pages 84-85: “And regardless of how many coordinates there are, when the coordinator is or, you can put the determinative either in front of it to emphasize the fact that the coordinates present alternatives: either toast, hash browns, or pancakes.”

Anagrams

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Middle English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Old English ǣġþer, ǣðer, a contraction of ǣġhwæþer.

Notes on phonological development

The form with /æi̯/ represents the regular development of the Old English sequence /æːj/ in ǣġþer. The monophthongal form with /ɛː/ may reflect a development of the /æː/ resulting from a West Saxon Old English tendency for the loss of /j/ between a vowel and a dental consonant (compare onġēan), a development of an *ǣhþer (see below), or a restressing of an unstressed form with /ɛ/.

While no unambiguous representation of such a pronunciation is found before John Jones (1701), the most immediately parsimonious explanation of modern English pronunciations of either with /aɪ/ is that they descend from a Middle English /iː/. However, the source of this form is not immediately obvious; it may reflect Old English *ǣhþer (/ˈæːx.θer/), a divergent simplification of ǣġhwæþer, where /æː/ was regularly raised to /eː/ then diphthongised to /ei̯/ before /x/ (as in e.g. heigh); later, /x/ was lost and /ei̯/ developed to /iː/ (which then would develop to Modern English /aɪ/). Another possibility is that it reflects Kentish Old English *ēġþer, where /eːj/ would regularly develop into /ei/. Furthermore, the form with /ɛː/ may also reflect a collateral development of *ǣhþer where /x/ was lost before the raising of /æː/ to /eː/ before it could occur.

An alternative possibility is that no Middle English form with /iː/ existed; in that case, the modern form with /aɪ/ would represent a reflex of Middle English /æi/. Viëtor posits a special development of that sound an open syllable (compare a potential parallel in Reigate), while another possibility is a borrowing of a dialectal form with that vowel into standard English, where it was identified with the reflex of /iː/ as that of /æi/ was monophthongal ([ɛː] or [eː]) at that point.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈæi̯ðər/, (less commonly) /ˈɛːðər/, (possibly) /ˈiːðər/
  • (from unstressed forms) IPA(key): /ˈɛðər/

Determiner

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either

  1. Both of two.
  2. Each of two.
  3. Either of two.

Descendants

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  • English: either
  • Scots: aither

Pronoun

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either

  1. Both of two members of a group.
  2. Each of two members of a group.
  3. Either of two members of a group.

Descendants

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Adjective

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either

  1. Both, all, or any of a set.
  2. Each of a group.

References

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Woiwurrung

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Adverb

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either

  1. whither[1]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/The_aborigines_of_Victoria_-_with_notes_relating_to_the_habits_of_the_natives_of_other_parts_of_Australia_and_Tasmania_%28IA_b24885228_0002%29.pdf
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