Either vs Lither - What's the difference?
either | lither |
Each of two.
* (John Milton) (1608-1674)
* 1936 , (Djuna Barnes), (Nightwood) , Faber & Faber 2007, page 31:
One or the other of two.
* {{quote-news, passage=You can't be a table and a chair. You're either a Jew or a gentile.
, quotee=(Jackie Mason), year=2006, date=December 5, work=USA Today
, title= (coordinating)
* {{quote-book, year=1893, author=(Walter Besant), title=
, passage=Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language
(obsolete) Both, each of two or more.
* , Bk.VII:
* (Francis Bacon) (1561-1626)
* , III.i:
* (1809-1894)
One or other of two people or things.
* 2013 , Daniel Taylor,
As well.
* {{quote-book, year=1959, author=(Georgette Heyer), title=(The Unknown Ajax), chapter=1
, passage=But Richmond
Introduces the first of two options, the second of which is introduced by "or".
(lithe)
* 1900 — , ch VIII
Bad; wicked; false; worthless; slothful; lazy.
* 1592 :
* 1653 , Thomas Urquhart and Peter Antony Motteux (translators), (1534), chapter XL
* 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
* 1920 , Charles Whibley, Literary Portraits, Ayer Publishing, ISBN 0836909887, page 63
As a determiner either
is each of two.As a pronoun either
is (obsolete) both, each of two or more.As an adverb either
is as well.As a conjunction either
is introduces the first of two options, the second of which is introduced by "or".As an adjective lither is
(lithe) or lither can be bad; wicked; false; worthless; slothful; lazy.either
English
Usage notes
In the UK the first pronunciation is generally used more in southern England, while the latter is more usual in northern England. However, this is an oversimplification, and the pronunciation used varies by individual speaker and sometimes by situation. The second pronunciation is the most common in the United States.Determiner
(en determiner)- His flowing hair / In curls on either cheek played.
- Her hands, long and beautiful, lay on either side of her face.
Mason drops lawsuit vs. Jews for Jesus}}
The Ivory Gate, chapter=Prologue
Synonyms
* (one or the other) * (each of two) both, eachPronoun
(English Pronouns)- Than ayther departed to theire tentis and made hem redy to horsebacke as they thought beste.
- Scarce a palm of ground could be gotten by either of the three.
- And either vowd with all their power and wit, / To let not others honour be defaste.
- There have been three talkers in Great British, either of whom would illustrate what I say about dogmatists.
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.
Adverb
(-)Usage notes
either is sometimes used, especially in North American English, where neither would be more traditionally accurate: "I'm not hungry." "Me either."Synonyms
* neither * tooConjunction
(English Conjunctions)- Either you eat your dinner or you go to your room.
Usage notes
* When there are more than two alternatives, "any" is used instead.See also
* neither * nor * orStatistics
*lither
English
Etymology 1
See (lithe)Adjective
(head)- 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 (etyl) lither, lyther, luther, lithere, lidder, from (etyl) . See (l).Adjective
(en adjective)- Anon, from thy insulting tyranny,
- Coupled in bonds of perpetuity,
- Two Talbots, winged through the lither sky,
- In thy despite shall ’scape mortality.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.