alter ego

See also: alter-ego, Alter Ego, and álter ego

English

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin, literally “other self”.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

alter ego (plural alter egos)

1. Somebody's alternate personality or persona; another self.
   • 2012 May 1, Ben Child, “Mark Ruffalo gets green light to play Hulk in six-movie deal”, in the Guardian‎^[2]:

     Ruffalo's turn as Bruce Banner and his angry green alter-ego has been widely praised. Avengers Assemble (titled The Avengers outside the UK) is on course to be one of the year's biggest films and has received strong reviews.

2. A very close and intimate friend.
3. (law) A corporation used by a person to conduct personal business in an attempt to shield himself or herself from personal liability, and which a court may penetrate by "piercing the corporate veil" to impose liability on the person when they commit fraud or injustice.

Synonyms

• alter idem

Derived terms

• alter (“one identity of a person with dissociative identity disorder”, noun)

Translations

alternate personality or persona

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 另一個我／另一个我, 另一个我 (lìng yī gè wǒ), 分身 (zh) (fen shen)

• French: alter ego (fr) m, un autre moi-même m
• German: Alter Ego (de) n, anderes Ich n
• Icelandic: annað sjálf n
• Japanese: アルター・エゴ (arutaru-ego), 分身 (ぶんしん, bunshin)
• Korean: 아루타 에고 (aruta ego), 분신 (ko) (bunsin)
• Latin: alter ego m
• Norwegian: alter ego n
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Polish: alter ego (pl), drugie ja
• Portuguese: alter ego (pt), outro eu (pt)
• Russian: а́льтер э́го (ru) n (álʹtɛr égo), друго́е я n (drugóje ja)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: алтер его, друго ја n

  Roman: alter ego (sh), drugo ja n

• Spanish: alter ego (es) m, otro yo m
• Swedish: alter ego (sv) n
• Tagalog: haliako

very close and intimate friend

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

See also

• double life

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Portuguese

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌaɫtɛɾˈɛ.ɣu/
• IPA^(key): /ˌawteɾˈɛ.ɡu/
• Hyphenation: a‧mor
• Rhymes: -oɾ

Noun

alter ego m (plural s)

1. alter ego (alternate personality or persona)

Synonyms

• outro eu

Related terms

• outro

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Spanish

Alternative forms

• álter ego

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin alter ego (“other self”).

Noun

alter ego m (plural alter egos)

1. alter ego (alternate personality or persona)

   Synonym: otro yo

Further reading

• “alter ego”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014