Note 142 — Chapter II · CRITICAL REMARKS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

It has been already offered as the opinion of the writer, (see p. 47,) that the English word other is the Saxon oðeꞃ, and that this word with the Arabic ahd, the Hebrew had or ahad, the Saxon oððe, the Teutonic odo, the Swedish udda, and probably the Latin aut, have all sprung from the same source, or that one of these is the parent of the rest, denoting unus or singulus, “one,” or “one by itself.” Of the origin of the Saxon other, Lye has hazarded no opinion. It appears to me to be a comparative from oððe. To those who have carefully examined, and have approved the theory of Mr. Tooke, it will furnish no valid objection against this opinion, that the word oððe is uniformly found in Saxon, signifying aut. Such can have little or no difficulty in perceiving, not only from the similarity of the elements, but from the affinity in point of sense, that had, ahd, aut, oððe, oðeꞃ, other, or, are all members of one and the same family.