alterity

[ awl-ter-i-tee ]

noun

, Anthropology, Philosophy, Sociology.

1. the quality or condition of being different, especially of being fundamentally different from or alien to the sense of identity of a person or cultural group; otherness:

   Ethnic nationalism seeks to deny alterity and generate homogeneous enclaves hostile to all forms of difference.

   God and paradise retain an ultimate alterity, and hence remain beyond the compass of human art.

Word History and Origins

Origin of alterity¹

First recorded in 1425–75; Middle English alterite “change, transformation, difference,” from Middle French alterité, from Late Latin alteritāt-, stem of alteritās “alternation, change,” equivalent to alter “other” + -i- connecting vowel + -tās noun suffix, modeled on Greek heterótēs “otherness, difference”

Example Sentences

His contributions to the 2022 Whitney Biennial, on view through Sept. 5 — three fanciful portraits of Erik Prince, the financier and founder of the private security firm Blackwater — depict a powerful white man at leisure among roomfuls of work focused on abstraction and alterity.

From New York Times

To call what’s just happened in Texas “medieval” is wrong, but this is a common move intending to impose what we call “chronological alterity” between us and something that we abhor.

From Slate

That alterity set in motion a series of experiences that gave my life meaning and gave me an advantage that I think is incredibly precious and hard-won.

From New York Times

In a concrete and sexual form the reciprocal recognition of the self and the other is accomplished in the keenest consciousness of the other and the self … the dimension of the other remains; but the fact is that alterity no longer has a hostile character; this consciousness of the union of the bodies in their separation is what makes the sexual act moving.”

From The Guardian

A scholastic dissertation on the relationship between “alterity and ipseity” — otherness and selfhood, to use common language — becomes almost satirical juxtaposed with a painting of an attractive young woman casually posed in regal profile on a throne-like upholstered chair.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• characteristic
• contrast
• difference
• differentiation
• discrepancy
• discrimination
• divergence
• division
• judgment
• nicety
• perception
• quality
• sensitivity
• separation