by the by

English

Alternative forms

• by the bye, by-the-by, by-the-bye

Etymology

The second "by" is a noun meaning "a secondary issue". Phrase used since the 17th century.

Prepositional phrase

by the by

1. Used to introduce a new topic; incidentally, by the way.
   • 1831, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Romance and Reality, volume 2, pages 70-71:

     Now, Mrs. Clarke was one of those to whom caps and crape were the very morality of mourning—she was not the only one, by the by, with whom propriety stands for principle,...

   • 1892, George Grossmith, Weedon Grossmith, chapter 1, in The Diary of a Nobody:

     She could not get it open, and after all my display, I had to take the Curate (whose name, by-the-by, I did not catch) round the side entrance.

   • 1893, William Morris, The Ideal Book‎^[1]:

     Well, I lay it down, first, that a book quite unornamented can look actually and positively beautiful, and not merely un-ugly, if it be, so to say, architecturally good, which, by the by, need not add much to its price […]

Translations

by the way — see by the way

Adjective

by the by (comparative more by the by, superlative most by the by)

1. Incidental; unplanned.

   Synonyms: accidental, causeless, random; see also Thesaurus:accidental

   • 1990, Susan Sherman, The color of the heart: writing from struggle & change, 1959-1990:

     These sudden rains. Not tropical - with lightning, thunder, great release after hours of tension. But more nonchalant, more "by-the-by." As if the clouds, rushing to get somewhere else, were to drop some rain in passing.

See also

• by the way

Further reading

• “by the by (or bye)”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.