Rather

How to spell rather

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce rather

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does rather mean?

1. adverbTo a moderate degree, somewhat; or used to indicate preference or correction.

Rather in a sentence

• The meeting ran rather longer than anyone expected.

• She would rather take the early train than rush in the morning.

Where does rather come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Rather comes straight from Old English, where hrathor was the comparative form of the adverb hraþe, meaning 'quickly' or 'promptly', built on the adjective hræd, 'quick' or 'eager'. So the literal sense was 'more quickly' or 'sooner', and you can still feel that older meaning in phrases like 'I would sooner do it', which is exactly what 'I would rather do it' once meant. Over the medieval period the idea of 'sooner' slid naturally into 'by preference' and then into the softer modern senses of 'somewhat' and 'on the contrary'. The word is purely Germanic, with no Latin or French detour, which is why it has the short, blunt look of native English vocabulary. The spelling trap is mild: the silent middle is the -th- digraph and the unstressed schwa ending -er, written -er rather than the tempting -ar.

How the word is built

• rath- (from Old English hræd, 'quick, prompt')
• -er (comparative suffix)