either

From Middle English either, from Old English ǣġhwæþer, from Proto-Germanic, ultimately corresponding to ay (“always, ever”) + whether. Akin to Old Saxon eogihwethar, iahwethar (Low German jeed); Old Dutch *iogewether, *iowether, *iother (Dutch ieder); Old High German eogihwedar, iegihweder, ieweder (German jeder).

• enPR: īth′ə(r), ēth′ə(r), IPA^(key): /ˈaɪð.ə(ɹ)/, /ˈiːð.ə(ɹ)/

• Audio

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• Rhymes: -aɪðə(ɹ), -iːðə(ɹ)

  • Audio (UK)

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    ,

    Audio (US)

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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 the 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.

either

1. One of two.

   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.

   • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton

     His flowing hair / In curls on either cheek played.

   • 1936, Djuna Barnes, Nightwood, Faber & Faber 2007, page 31:

     Her hands, long and beautiful, lay on either side of her face.

• When there are more than two alternatives, in the sense of "one of many", any is used instead.

• (each of two): both, each

either

1. One or other of two people or things.

   He made me two offers, but I did not accept either.

   • 2013, Daniel Taylor, Danny Welbeck leads England's rout of Moldova but hit by Ukraine ban, The Guardian, 6 September:

     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.
   • 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:

     , Bk.VII:

     Than ayther departed to theire tentis and made hem redy to horsebacke as they thought beste.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Francis Bacon

     Scarce a palm of ground could be gotten by either of the three.

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. […], London: Printed [by John Wolfe] for VVilliam Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, book III, canto I:

     And either vowd with all their power and wit, / To let not others honour be defaste […]

   • (Can we date this quote?) Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

     There have been three talkers in Great British, either of whom would illustrate what I say about dogmatists.

either (not comparable)

1. (conjunctive, after a negative) As well.

   I don't like him, and I don't like her 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.

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."

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.

   • 2006 December 5,, “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.

• neither
• nor
• or

• “either” (US) / “either” (UK) in Oxford Dictionaries, Oxford University Press.

• Ethier, theire

• æȝþer, ethir, eiþer, outher

From Old English ǣġþer, a contraction of ǣġhwæþer.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛiðər/

either

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

• Scots: aither
• English: either

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.

• Scots: aither
• English: either

either

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

• “either (pron.)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-02-20.