otro

Forms

otro m (plural otros, feminine otra, feminine plural otras)^[1] The earliest form is altro (Glosas Emilianenses), and medieval texts also have altra, altre, otre and alotro.^[2][3] Leonese has utro, with the u of uno, and Asturian utru;^[4] otre and otri are found in Soria, La Rioja and Navarre.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish altro (the form of the Glosas Emilianenses; the Cid already has the modern form), inherited from Latin alter (“the other of two”).^[2][5][6][1] Already in Vulgar Latin it replaced classical alius (“other”), and in this form it passed into all the Romance languages.^[2] The Spanish Wiktionary and Gómez de Silva set an intermediate stage autro.^[7][8] The Academy's dictionaries have named different Latin case forms: the 1884 edition the ablative, the 2001 edition the accusative, and the current one simply the nominative.^[9][10][6]

The same Latin word is Portuguese outro, Galician outro, Asturian otru, Aragonese atro, Catalan altre, Occitan autre, French autre, Italian altro and Romanian alt.^[1][11][4] Unlike its sister languages, Castilian does not combine the word with the indefinite article un, although Old Aragonese inventories of 1379 have this combination.^[2] The obsolete pronoun otri (“another person”), from the Latin dative, is recorded from 1251.^[2]

The Latin word is formed from the same base as the classical word for “other”, from Proto-Italic *al-tero- and Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-tero- “the other (of two)”, with the contrastive suffix also seen in Ancient Greek ἕτερος (héteros).^[12][13][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Glosas Emilianenses of about 950 have altro, and the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140) has otro.^[2][5] The Cid already uses it as pronoun and adjective and in the phrases otro tanto “as much again” and otro día mañana “the next morning”.^[14]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish otro also meant “next”: an Alfonsine chronicle promises a letter de aqui a otro dia de cras por noche “by the night after tomorrow”.^[15] The compound otrosí “likewise” (1100, and in the Cid) is formed with sí “so” and survives only in legal language.^[2][5] Otramente “otherwise” was used from the Libro de Alexandre to Alonso de Palencia but later dropped, while it stayed alive in the other Romance languages.^[2]

Nebrija in 1513 glossed it as “one of the two”, Latin alter.^[16] The Diccionario de Autoridades recorded its use to mark a close likeness (es otro San Francisco) and the exclamation ¡otra! of annoyance, and the Academy's 1884 edition added ¡otra! as the call for an encore.^[17][9] The adverb otrora “formerly” is a literary loan from Portuguese outrora, first recorded in Argentina in 1913.^[2][5]

Timeline

• c. 950 – the Glosas Emilianenses have altro.^[2]
• 1100 – first record of the compound otrosí.^[2]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has otro, otro tanto and otro día mañana.^[2][14]
• 1251 – the Calila e Dimna has the pronoun otri “another person”.^[2]
• 1379 – Old Aragonese inventories use un otro.^[2]
• 1494 – the first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[18]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records es otro San Francisco and the interjection ¡otra!.^[17]
• 1884 – the Academy adds ¡otra! as a call for an encore.^[9]
• 1913 – first record of otrora, a loan from Portuguese.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. other, different from the person or thing being spoken of; also as a noun: Prefiero el otro coche.^[6][1]
2. another, one more, without the article: Dame otra oportunidad.^[6]
3. Used to mark a close likeness between two different people or things: es otro Picasso “he is a second Picasso”.^[6][17]
4. With the article before words of time such as día or tarde, a recent past: el otro día “the other day”.^[6]
5. With the article before words such as día, semana or año, the following one: al otro día “the next day”.^[6]

Pronoun

1. Another person or thing; someone or something else: Esta no me gusta, quiero otra.^[6][1]

Interjection

1. ¡otra!: a call for an encore at a performance; also an expression of impatience at someone's repeated mistakes.^[6]

Word family

• otrosí
• estotro
• esotro

Related words

• alterar
• alterno
• otrora
• altruismo
• Latin alter
• Portuguese outro

Usage notes

Esa es otra says that what has just been said is one more absurdity or difficulty.^[6][17] Castilian does not say un otro: it is otro libro “another book”.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 323
3. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. otro
4. ^ a b c García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 463
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. otro
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. otro
7. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. otro
8. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 514
9. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 769
10. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. otro
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. alter
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. alius
13. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. alter
14. ^ a b Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 373
15. ^ Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. otro
16. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 391
17. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 65
18. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. otro