Open main menu
Wiktionary

both

EnglishEdit

Alternative formsEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Middle English bothe, boþe, from Old English bā þā (“both the; both those”) and Old Norse báðir, from Proto-Germanic *bai-. Cognate with Saterland Frisian bee (“both”), West Frisian beide (“both”), Dutch beide (“both”), German beide (“both”), Swedish både, båda, Danish både, Norwegian både, Icelandic báðir. Replaced Middle English bō from Old English bā, bū, and beġen, also from Proto-Germanic *bai-.

PronunciationEdit

DeterminerEdit

both

  1. Each of the two; one and the other; referring to two individuals or items.
    "Did you want this one or that one?" — "Give me both."
    Both children are such dolls.
    • Bible, Genesis xxi. 27
      Abraham took sheep and oxen, and gave them unto Abimelech; and both of them made a covenant.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Viscount Bolingbroke
      He will not bear the loss of his rank, because he can bear the loss of his estate; but he will bear both, because he is prepared for both.
  2. Each of the two kinds; one and the other kind; referring to several individuals or items which are divided into two groups.
    • 2013 July 19, Ian Sample, “Irregular bedtimes may affect children's brains”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 34:
      Irregular bedtimes may disrupt healthy brain development in young children, according to a study of intelligence and sleeping habits.  ¶ Going to bed at a different time each night affected girls more than boys, but both fared worse on mental tasks than children who had a set bedtime, researchers found.

TranslationsEdit

ConjunctionEdit

both

  1. Including both of (used with and).
    Both you and I are students.
    • 1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins, →ISBN:
      Mind you, clothes were clothes in those days. There was a great deal of them, lavish both in material and in workmanship.
  2. (obsolete) Including all of (used with and).
    • (Can we date this quote?) Oliver Goldsmith
      Both mongrel, puppy, whelp, and hound.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Samuel Taylor Coleridge
      He prayeth well who loveth well both man and bird and beast.
    • 1892, Richard Congreve, Essays Political, Social, and Religious (volume 2, page 615)
      […] as he appreciates its beauty and its rich gifts, as he regards it with venerant love, fed by both his intellectual powers, his contemplation, and his meditation.

TranslationsEdit

QuotationsEdit

See alsoEdit

various semantically related terms

IrishEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Old Irish both (“hut, bothy, cot; cabin”), from Proto-Celtic *butā (compare Middle Welsh bot (“dwelling”)), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- (“to be”). Related to English booth.

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

both f (genitive singular botha, nominative plural bothanna or botha)

  1. Booth, hut.

DeclensionEdit

Declension of both

Third declension

Bare forms:

Case Singular Plural
Nominative both bothanna
Vocative a bhoth a bhothanna
Genitive botha bothanna
Dative both bothanna

Forms with the definite article:

Case Singular Plural
Nominative an bhoth na bothanna
Genitive na botha na mbothanna
Dative leis an mboth

don bhoth

leis na bothanna
Alternative declension
Declension of both

Irregular

Bare forms

Case Singular Plural
Nominative both botha
Vocative a bhoth a bhotha
Genitive botha both
Dative both botha

Forms with the definite article

Case Singular Plural
Nominative an bhoth na botha
Genitive na botha na mboth
Dative leis an mboth

don bhoth

leis na botha

Derived termsEdit

  • bothach (“hutted, full of huts”, adjective)
  • bothán m (“shanty, cabin; hut, shed, coop”)
  • bothchampa m (“hutment”)
  • bothóg f (“shanty, cabin”)

MutationEdit

Irish mutation
Radical Lenition Eclipsis
both bhoth mboth
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further readingEdit

Middle EnglishEdit

Etymology 1Edit

From Old Norse búð.

NounEdit

both (plural boths)

  1. Alternative form of bothe (“booth”)

Etymology 2Edit

Old English bā þā; influenced by Old Norse báðir.

DeterminerEdit

both

  1. Alternative form of bothe (“both”)

ConjunctionEdit

both

  1. Alternative form of bothe (“both”)

Old IrishEdit

VerbEdit

both

  1. preterite passive conjunct of at·tá
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=both&oldid=55498127"