The entry for ‘other‘ on etymonline.com, the Online Etymology Dictionary, is a bit of a long one. One part that was interesting is that some of the original meaning of ‘other’ was removed from the word.
The sense of “second” was detached from this word in English (which now uses second (adj.), which is from Latin) and German (zweiter, from zwei “two”) to avoid ambiguity.
When I went over to the entry for ‘second’ what follows is the first line of the first paragraph.
next in order after the first; an ordinal numeral; being one of two equal parts into which a whole is regarded as divided
This really struck me. There is a strong sense of separation with ‘other’ now. It can be light separation simply indicating the other of two options, to more extreme and fear-based separation as in “the other”, or xenophobia.
“…one of two equal parts into which a whole is regarded as divided” What a different feeling I get with this. The other then becomes the other part of me rather than this separate thing over there and unknown.
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