altre

Forms

altre (feminine altra, masculine and feminine plural altres)^[1] Old Catalan also wrote altro: Aguiló quotes l’altro a Perpinyà from an old document.^[2] Colloquial speech often has atre (atro in the west), the oldest and most widespread variant, found in a 14th-century manuscript of the Vides de sants and used across Valencia and the north-west up to the language border;^[3][1] antre occurs after un (un antre), and altro and atro in the Principality.^[3][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin alter (“the other (of two)”).^{[3][4][5][6][1]} In Vulgar Latin it replaced alius (“other (of many)”), and in this sense it passed into all the Romance languages.^[7][5]

The same Latin word is Occitan autre, Spanish otro, Portuguese outro, French autre, Italian altro and Romanian alt.^[8][1] The troubadours wrote Old Occitan altre, as Catalan does.^[9] The pronoun altri continues the Latin dative alterī.^[5]

The Latin word goes back to Proto-Italic *aliteros (“the other of two”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

CICA's first record is in the Llibre dels judicis, of the first half of the 12th century, and the DCVB quotes a document of 1181.^[10][4] Coromines quotes the Homilies d'Organyà, where God and the spirit of man will last for ever while all other things perish (totes altres coses periran).^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the beginning Romance tended to use the word with the articles, l'altre and un altre;^[3] Catalan uses un altre throughout its territory, and the use reaches some Aragonese speech, whereas Spanish says otro without an article.^[3] Faraudo records the neuter pronoun altre 'something else' in a letter of challenge of Lluís Cornell, beside alre and àls.^[11] The archaic alre survived in Osona, where Verdaguer used it all his life, above all in si alre no 'at least'.^[12]

Labèrnia's dictionary of 1839 gives the senses 'different', 'like' (un altre Alexandre) and 'remaining'.^[13] The modern standard keeps the neuter altre only in negative comparisons, meaning nothing else or nobody else.^[14][15] The derivatives altressí 'also' (12th century, in the Homilies) and altrament (14th century, in Eiximenis) are old.^[5]

Timeline

• 1100–1149 – first record in CICA, in the Llibre dels judicis.^[10]
• 1181 – a document quoted by the DCVB.^[4]
• 12th century – altressí 'also' in the Homilies d'Organyà.^[5]
• 14th century – l'atre dia in a manuscript of the Vides de sants;^[3][5] altrament in Eiximenis.^[3][5]
• 1381 – Bernat Metge's Somni: e no altre.^[11]
• 1440 – the Curial e Güelfa: altre dona.^[11]
• 1839 – Labèrnia's dictionary defines altre.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. other, different; not the one already named: Porta'm una altra cadira.^[6][4][1]
2. another, one more: Vols un altre cafè?^[6]
3. A second, like: És un altre Picasso.^[6][13]
4. Remaining; with the article, the rest: els altres alumnes.^[6][4]
5. (of time) Previous, recent: l’altre dia.^[1]

Pronoun

1. Another person or thing: Un parla i l’altre escolta.^[6][1]
2. (neuter, in negative comparisons) Anything else; anyone else.^[14][15]

Word family

• altrament
• altressí
• altri

Related words

• alterar
• altruisme
• Latin alter
• Occitan autre
• Spanish otro

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Aguiló i Fuster, Marià (1914–1934), Diccionari Aguiló: materials lexicogràfics, ed. Pompeu Fabra and Manuel de Montoliu, 8 vols., Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. altre
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 1, 235
4. ^ a b c d e Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. altre
5. ^ a b c d e f g Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 61
6. ^ a b c d e f Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. altre
7. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 323
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 382
9. ^ Raynouard, François-Just-Marie (1838–1844), Lexique roman, ou dictionnaire de la langue des troubadours, 6 vols., Paris: Silvestre, p. 6, 70
10. ^ a b Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. altre
11. ^ a b c Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. altre
12. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 10, 2
13. ^ a b c Labèrnia, Pere (1839–1840), Diccionari de la llengua catalana ab la correspondencia castellana y llatina, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. altre
14. ^ a b Institut d'Estudis Catalans (2007), Diccionari de la llengua catalana, 2nd ed. (DIEC2), Barcelona: Edicions 62; online edition with later updates, https://dlc.iec.cat, p. s.v. altre
15. ^ a b Institut d'Estudis Catalans, Diccionari essencial de la llengua catalana (DEIEC), online, https://deiec.iec.cat, p. s.v. altre