# Either = both???

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/either-both/384559>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 17, 2006, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/either-both/384559 "2006-12-17T23:39:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\
**Post date:** [December 17, 2006, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/either-both/384559/1 "2006-12-17T23:39:53Z")

</div>

Normally, when we use the word “either,” we mean one alternative or another alternative, but not both, e.g. “There’s a window on either the left side of the door or the right.”

But how did “either” also come to mean the exact opposite, meaning “both,” as in “There’s a window on either side of the door”?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\
**Post date:** [December 18, 2006, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/either-both/384559/2 "2006-12-18T00:40:10Z")

</div>

Either meaning both is actually the older meaning.

[Online Etymology Dictionary](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=either&searchmode=none)

> [@](#):
>
> O.E. ægðer, contraction of æghwæðer “each of two, both,” from a “always” + ge- collective prefix + hwæðer “which of two, whether.” Modern sense of “one or the other of two” is early 14c.