rather
Language: English
Part of speech: adv
Pronunciation: note: r
enpr: rä′thə
ipa: /ˈɹɑː.ðə(ɹ)/
ipa: /ˌɹɑːˈðɜː(ɹ)/
enpr: răth′ər
enpr: rä′thər
ipa: /ˈɹæðɚ/
note: r
enpr: rŭ’thə
note: r
enpr: rä’thə
ipa: /ˈɹʌ.ðə(ɹ)/
ipa: /ˈɹɑː.ðə(ɹ)/
enpr: rä’thə
ipa: /ˈɹɐː.ðə/
note: Indic
ipa: /ˈrɑd̪ʱə(r)/
note: without the trap–bath split
ipa: /ˈrad̪ʱə(r)/
rhymes: -ɑːðə(ɹ)
rhymes: -æðə(ɹ)
rhymes: -ʌðə(ɹ)
Forms: form: raither
Etymology: From Middle English rather, from Old English hraþor, comparative of hraþe (“soon, early, fast”). More at rathe. Cognate with Dutch radder (“faster”), comparative of Dutch rad (“fast; quick”), German Low German radd, ratt (“rashly; quickly; hastily”), German gerade (“even; straight; direct”). By surface analysis, rathe + -er.
Senses: examples: text: I'd rather not have spent all the money, but it really was an emergency.
text: I would like this one rather than the other one.
text: I s'pose we'd better clean the kitchen, but we had much rather not do anything right now.
text: Tomorrow's impossible. We'd rather you came next weekend.
text: They'd rather've spent the money on a holiday.
text: Firstly, I continue to base most species treatments on personally collected material, rather than on herbarium plants.
ref: 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page vii:
text: I'd rather dance with you than talk with you / So why don't we just move into the other room
ref: 2004, Erlend Øye, Eirik Glambek Bøe, “I'd Rather Dance with You”, performed by Kings of Convenience:
synonyms: word: sooner
word: liefer
glosses: Used to specify a choice or preference; preferably, in preference to. (Now usually followed by than)
examples: text: It wasn't supposed to be popular; rather, it was supposed to get the job done.
text: She didn't go along, but rather went home instead.
glosses: Used to introduce a contradiction; on the contrary.
examples: text: What the pupil already knew was indeed rather taken for granted than expressed, but it performed the useful function of transcending all textbooks, and supplanting all studies.
ref: 1897 October 16, Henry James, chapter IX, in What Maisie Knew, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y.: Herbert S. Stone & Co., →OCLC, page 94:
text: 1898, J. A. Hamilton, "Stanley, Edward George Geoffrey Smith", in Sidney Lee (Ed.), Dictionary of National Biography, Volume LIV: Stanhope–Stovin, The MacMillan Company, page 60,
His ‘Iliad’ is spirited and polished, and, though often rather a paraphrase than a translation, is always more truly poetic than most of the best translations.
text: All this was extraordinarily distasteful to Churchill.[…]Never before had he felt such repulsion when the vicar displayed his characteristic bluntness or coarseness of speech. In the present connection—or rather as a transition from the subject that had started their conversation—such talk had been distressingly out of place.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXIV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, pages 198–199:
text: I didn't want to leave. Or rather I did, just not alone.
glosses: Introducing a qualification or clarification; more precisely. (Now usually preceded by or.)
examples: text: It's been rather/quite a good meal overall, but this melon is rather too tasteless.
text: We had some rather worse news today.
text: We’ll be seeing rather a lot of you over the next few days.
text: I'd rather like a cup of tea. - Oh, would you? I'd rather have a mug of beer.
synonyms: somewhat
fairly
actually
unexpectedly
antonyms: utterly
qualifier: degree
glosses: Somewhat, quite; to an unexpected degree.
examples: text: Pompey, being elated and filled with confidence by this victory, made all haste to engage Sertorius himself, and the rather lest Metellus should come in for a share in the honour of the victory.
ref: 1683, John Dryden, transl., Plutarch's Lives: Life of Pompey, translation of original by Plutarch:
synonyms: sooner
earlier
glosses: More quickly.
Derived terms: I would rather die
rather than
sooner rather than later