or meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

or

adjalso spelled OR

US /oɹ/ · UK /ɔː(ɹ)/

Etymology From late Middle English or (“gold”), borrowed from Middle French or (“yellow”), from Old French or, from Latin aurum (“gold”). Doublet of aurum.

Government, Heraldry, Hobbies, Lifestyle, Monarchy, Nobility, Politics Of gold or yellow tincture on a coat of arms.

Synonyms: gold

or

adv

Etymology From Late Old English ār, from Old Norse ár. Compare ere.

Obsolete Early (on).

Obsolete Earlier, previously.

or

prep

Etymology From Late Old English ār, from Old Norse ár. Compare ere.

Archaic, Dialectal Before; ere. Generally followed by "ever" or "e'er".

Or euer the siluer corde be loosed, or the golden bowle be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountaine, or the wheele broken at the cisterne. Then shall the dust returne to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall returne vnto God who gaue it.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ecclesiastes 12:6-7:
I looked to heaven, and tried to pray; But or ever a prayer had gusht, A wicked whisper came, and made My heart as dry as dust.1834, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner:

1 more example

And Time went forth into the worlds to obey the commands of the gods, yet he cast furtive glances at his masters, and the gods distrusted Time because he had known the worlds or ever the gods became.1906, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], Time and the Gods, London: William Heineman, →OCLC, page 3:

OR

conj

Human sciences, Logic, Mathematics, Philosophy, Sciences Inclusive or; either one proposition or the other is true or both.

Computer, Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Science, Sciences A lexical symbol to implement inclusive or in a computer language.

Business, Electrical, Electrical engineering, Electricity, Electromagnetism, Energy, Engineering, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Physics A logic gate to implement inclusive or.

OR

noun

Human sciences, Logic, Mathematics, Philosophy, Sciences The binary operator inclusive or, true if one at least one of two inputs is true. In infix notation.

The proof (Tables 9 and 10) of idempotence for both OR and AND follows from examining the definition of each operation under the constraint that both inputs have the same value.2022 August 4, William Bahn, “Boolean Algebra Laws—Delving Into Boolean Identities”, in All About Circuits:

Synonyms: ∨
Antonyms: NOR
Related terms: AND, XOR, NAND, NOT

or

conj

/ə(ɹ)/ · /ɔː(ɹ)/

Etymology From Middle English or; partially contracted from other, auther, from Old English āþor, āwþer, āhwæþer ("some, any, either"; > either); and partially from Middle English oththe, from Old English oþþe, from Proto-Germanic *efþau (“or”).

Connects at least two alternative words, phrases, clauses, sentences, etc., each of which could make a passage true.

You may stay or go.
He might get cancer, or be hit by a bus, or God knows what.

Human sciences, Logic, Mathematics, Philosophy, Sciences An operator denoting the disjunction of two propositions or truth values. There are two forms, the inclusive or and the exclusive or.

Counts the elements before and after as two possibilities.

Otherwise (a consequence of the condition that the previous is false).

It's raining! Come inside or you'll catch a cold!
No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or otherwise his man would be there with a message to say that his master would shortly join me if I would kindly wait.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 46:

Connects two equivalent names.

The country Myanmar, or Burma

Derived terms: heorshe
Related terms: either, neither, nor, i.e.

or

noun

Etymology From late Middle English or (“gold”), borrowed from Middle French or (“yellow”), from Old French or, from Latin aurum (“gold”). Doublet of aurum.

Government, Heraldry, Hobbies, Lifestyle, Monarchy, Nobility, Politics The gold or yellow tincture on a coat of arms.

The metals are gold and silver, these being termed "or" and "argent".1909, Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, A Complete Guide to Heraldry:
In engraving, "Or" is expressed by dots.1889, Charles Norton Elvin, A Dictionary of Heraldry:

Synonyms: o., Or
Related terms: Au

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — authors: page histories for or and OR.