• alterity •
Pronunciation: awl-ter-rê-ti • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Otherness, difference, the state of being different, diversity.
Notes: This word is a more formal, Latinate alternative for otherness. It is a noun built on the adjective alter, which is a more formal alternative for other; an 'alter ego' is an 'other ego'. Alter is also a verb, which lurks beneath alternate "change back and forth", altercate and alternative.
In Play: Diversity is a subnotion of alterity: "Some people find diversity difficult to accept because they are uncomfortable with alterity." Such people are more comfortable with homogeneity. Others are just the opposite: "Anthropologists studying other cultures must be deeply interested in alterity."
Word History: Today's Good Word is made up of alter + -ity, a nominalizing suffix. Alter was captured by English intact from Latin alter "other (of two)", which Latin concocted from PIE al- "beyond, besides, other" + -ter, the same suffix we find in English other, brother, and mother. We find traces of al- in Latin uls "beyond", which went into the creation of ulterior "more remote". We find evidence of it in Sanskrit arana- "far, strange", Greek allos "other", Latin alius "other things", Czech loni "last year", Serbian lani "last year", Armenian ayl "other", Irish alltar "other world", English all, and German alle "all". (Now let's thank Sue Gold, staunch e-mail contributor since 2007, for today's thought-provoking Good Word.)
