different between either vs lither

English

Etymology

From Middle English either, from Old English ??hwæþer, 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).

Pronunciation

• enPR: ?th??(r), ?th??(r), IPA^(key): /?a?ð.?(?)/, /?i?ð.?(?)/
• Rhymes: -a?ð?(?), -i?ð?(?)
  • ,
• In the UK, /a?/ is used more in Southern England, and /i?/ is more usual in Northern England. In North America, /i?/ is the most common, but /a?/ 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.

Determiner

either

1. Any one (of two).

2. Each of two; both. [from 9th c.]

   There is a locomotive at either end of the train, one pulling and the other pushing.

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

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

3. (now rare) Any one (of more than two).
   • 1748, Samuel Richardson, Clarissa, Letter 51:

     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

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

Synonyms

• (each of two): both, each

Translations

Pronoun

either

1. One or the 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.
   • 1623, Francis Bacon, A Discourse of a War with Spain

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

   • 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

either (not comparable)

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

Usage notes

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

Conjunction

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.

Translations

See also

• neither
• nor
• or

References

• “either”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.

Anagrams

• Ethier, theire

Middle English

Alternative forms

• æ?þer, ethir, eiþer, outher

Etymology

From Old English ??þer, a contraction of ??hwæþer.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??ið?r/

Determiner

either

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

Descendants

• Scots: aither
• English: either

Pronoun

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

• Scots: aither
• English: either

Adjective

either

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

See also

• ayther

References

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

English

Etymology 1

See lithe.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?la?ð?(?)/

Adjective

lither

1. comparative form of lithe: more lithe
   • 1900 — Grant Allen and Arthur Conan Doyle, Hilda Wade, ch VIII

     Doolittle and myself waited. Colebrook kept on cautiously, squirming his long body in sinuous waves like a lizard's through the grass, and was soon lost to us. No snake could have been lither.

Etymology 2

From Middle English lither, lyther, luther, lithere, lidder, from Old English l?þre (“bad, wicked, base, mean, corrupt, wretched”), from Proto-Germanic *l?þrijaz (“neglected, dissolute, useless, bad”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)lew- (“slack, limp”). Related to Old English loþrung (“delusion, rubbish, nonsense”), Old English loddere (“beggar”), Dutch lodder (“a wanton”), Dutch loddering (“drowsy, trifling, wanton”), German lotterig (“slovenly”), German lüderlich (“slovenly”), German liederlich (“dissolute”).

Alternative forms

• lidder

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?li?ð?(?)/

Adjective

lither (comparative more lither, superlative most lither)

1. (Can we clean up⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) Bad; wicked; false; worthless; slothful; lazy.
   • c. 1515–1516, published 1568, John Skelton, Again?t venemous tongues enpoy?oned with ?claunder and fal?e detractions &c.:

     For though ?ome be lidder, and li?t for to rayle,
     Yet to lie upon me they cannot prevayle.

   • 1592: William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1

     Anon, from thy insulting tyranny,

     Coupled in bonds of perpetuity,

     Two Talbots, winged through the lither sky,

     In thy despite shall ’scape mortality.

   • 1653, Thomas Urquhart and Peter Antony Motteux (translators), François Rabelais (author), Gargantua (1534), chapter XL

     After the same manner a monk--I mean those lither, idle, lazy monks--doth not labour and work, as do the peasant and artificer; doth not ward and defend the country, as doth the man of war; cureth not the sick and diseased, as the physician doth; doth neither preach nor teach, as do the evangelical doctors and schoolmasters; doth not import commodities and things necessary for the commonwealth, as the merchant doth.

   • 1850, H. I. (translator), Reverand Thomas Harding, A.M. (editor), The Decades of Henry Bullinger, Minister of the Church of Zurich., Third Decade, The Parker Society, Great Britain, page 32

     Secondarily, let him which laboreth in his vocation be prompt and active; let him be watchful and able to abide labour; he must be no lither-back¹, unapt, or slothful fellow. Whatever he doth, that let him do with faith² and diligence.

   • 1920, Charles Whibley, Literary Portraits, Ayer Publishing, ?ISBN, page 63

     Thus he sketched an education which might have befitted a great king, without a word of ribaldry or scorn, and in such a spirit as proves that he gravely condemned the lazy, lither system of the monasteries.

Derived terms

• lidderon
• litherlurden
• litherly
• litherness
• litherous

References

• lither in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• Hirtle, Hitler