Bible dictionaries

Either

What Bible dictionaries say about “Either”, one article after the other.

Easton’s Bible Dictionary & Webster’s 1828 Dictionary

Either - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

E'ITHER, a. or pron.

1. One or another of any number. Here are ten oranges; take either orange of the whole number, or take either of them. In the last phrase, either stands as a pronoun or substitute.

2. One of two. This sense is included in the foregoing.

Lepidus flatters both,

Of both is flattered; but he neither loves,

Nor either cares for him.

3. Each; every one separately considered.

On either side of the river. Rev 22.

4. This word, when applied to sentences or propositions, is called a distributive or a conjunction. It precedes the first of two or more alternatives, and is answered by or before the second, or succeeding alternatives.

Either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he sleepeth. l Kings 18.

In this sentence, either refers to each of the succeeding clauses of the sentence.

Matthew George Easton, Easton’s Bible Dictionary; Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language (1828)

The article in Easton + Webster 1828

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE 1915)

e'-ther, i'-ther:

Often in the sense still common, "one or the other" (1Ch 21:21; Mt 6:24, etc.), but also in the obsolete sense of "both" or "each" (Le 10:1; 1Ki 7:15; Joh 19:18; Re 22:2), or in place of (Revised Version) "or" (Lu 6:42; 15:8; Php 3:12; Jas 3:12).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia — James Orr, general editor and contributors; CrossWire SWORD module ISBE 2.2

The article in ISBE 1915