or

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-- or a French word? "

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Definitions (30)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (9)

  1. conjunction Used to indicate an alternative, usually only before the last term of a series: hot or cold; this, that, or the other.
  2. conjunction Used to indicate the second of two alternatives, the first being preceded by either or whether: Your answer is either ingenious or wrong. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
  3. conjunction Archaic Used to indicate the first of two alternatives, with the force of either or whether.
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Examples (50)

  • How come you don't have the boy call you Aunt or Auntie or -- or -- or, I dunno, something like that in Latin or French, one of them high-class dead languages? —  F ;SF - vol 102 issue 04 - April 2002
  • If we take as good this year's government estimate, it gives us average growth for the German economy over the last 10 years of 1. 07\%, hardly changed from the supposedly "correctional" pace attained between 1995 and 2005 (see chart below) - or is Germany's lost decade now surreptitiously going to convert itself (like its Japanese equivalent) into the lost decade and a half? —  Global Economy Matters
  • So Mrs. Clinton presented the foreign minister with a little box with a button on it and a sign that said "reset" in Russian -- or at least that's what the Americans thought it said. —  Top Stories from CQ
  • Are we just looking at the standard campaign with one other human player or are there special considerations to be made? —  IGN PC
  • Torrent Elliot Smith Either or is available for download in the Music category of our bit torrents web site. —  all torrents rss feed
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Etymologies (6)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. Middle English, from other, or (from Old English, from oththe) and from outher (from Old English āhwæther, āther; see either).
  2. Middle English, variant of er, from Old English ǣr, soon, early, and from Old Norse ār; see ayer- in Indo-European roots.
  3. Middle English, from Old French, from Latin aurum.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. (a) from Middle English or, a contracted form of other, outher, auther, from Anglo-Saxon āthor, āuther, āwther, āhwæther, pron.; orig. the same as either, of which, through the obsolete variant other, or is thus a contracted form: see either. Cf. nor, similarly related to neither. (b) With the Middle English other, or, was merged in early Middle English another word, oththe, from . Anglo-Saxon oththe, rarely eththa, oththon, or, = Old High German eddo, odo, Middle High German ode, od, also with an attracted comparative sufflx, due, as partly in Middle English, to association with orig. comparative forms (Old High German wedar = English whether, etc.), Old High German odar, Middle High German G. oder = Icelandic ethr, etha = Goth, aiththau, or, from Gothic (Moesogothic) ith (with “breaking” aith-) (= Latin et, and) + thau, or. Or is much used correlatively, as in either … or (Anglo-Saxon āthor or oththe … oththe), whether … or (Anglo-Saxon hwæther … oththe).
  2. from Middle English or, ar, a variant of er, ær, from Anglo-Saxon æ¯r, before: see ere, of which or is a variant form.
  3. from Middle English or, from Old French (and F.) or = Spanish oro = Portuguese ouro = Italian oro, from Latin aurum, gold: see aurum.
 

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