Other

See also: other and oþer

English

Etymology 1

Semantic loan from French Autre, principally after French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan (also as grand Autre) and philosopher Emmanuel Levinas.

Proper noun

the Other (plural Others)

1. (philosophy, psychoanalysis) Radical alterity or otherness conceived or reified as a separate entity; “other people” altogether in their difference from oneself.
   • 1992, Slavoj Žižek, Enjoy Your Symptom! Jacques Lacan in Hollywood and Out, →ISBN, page 56:

     In its most fundamental dimension, sacrifice is a “gift of reconciliation” to the Other, destined to appease its desire. Sacrifice conceals the abyss of the Other’s desire, more precisely: it conceals the Other’s lack, inconsistency, “inexistence,” that transpires in this desire. Sacrifice is a guarantee that “the Other exists” […]

   • 2006, Lisa Guenther, The Gift of the Other: Levinas and the Politics of Reproduction, →ISBN, page 123:

     The transformations of writing bear an ethical as well as an aesthetic or literary significance; writing implies orientation towards the Other in the midst of which a renewal of the self becomes possible.

   • 2015, Jonathan Corpus Ong, The Poverty of Television: The Mediation of Suffering in Class-Divided Philippines, →ISBN, page 17:

     Critiquing the Western philosophical tradition of privileging the autonomy of the ‘I’, in which he uses Heidegger as exemplar, Levinas provocatively argues that the ‘I’ ultimately exists to be responsible for the Other – a responsibility based not on reciprocity (whether the Other behaves in accordance to expectations of the ‘I’) but on an asymmetrical and infinite kind of responsibility.

Translations

Sociological concept

• French: autrui (fr), autre (fr)
• Korean: 타자(他者) (ko) (taja)
• Persian: دیگری (fa) (digari)

Etymology 2

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Proper noun

Other

1. A surname.