I was wondering what every other time means. For example:
I know it's being fixed, but rebooting every other time you do something gets old.
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3 Answers
From the New Oxford American Dictionary:
every other: each second in a series; each alternate: I train with weights every other day
In this case, it is most probably used figuratively, and means “rebooting very often”.
Every second time - So you can do something once, then the second time you need to reboot
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/every_other :
- All except for some previously mentioned set.
Two of the bolts were loose, but every other bolt I checked was fine.- Every second; each alternate; the second of each pair in turn (perhaps used because every second could also refer to second as a unit of time or be interpreted as meaning only the second).
Every other person in the line wore a pink bowtie.
The second meaning is the one relevant here.
answered Feb 15, 2011 at 9:18
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1I've added a line at the end just to clarify; feel free to revert. Feb 15, 2011 at 11:51
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1There's very, very old joke about the nymphomaniac who spent a few frantic months in European assiduously chasing noblemen and managed to make every second count. Jul 6, 2011 at 21:13
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But can it really be confused with the unit? What does it mean when you say: Every second year. What is ' second year '? Mar 25, 2015 at 22:35
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"Every other time" in the sentence you provided is being used figuratively to mean "almost constantly" or "nearly every time." The literal meaning of "every other time" is every 2nd time period in a series (or alternating occurrences). I will explain by example. If you exercise "every other day," then you exercise Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and so on. Or if you change the oil in your car "every other month," then you skip a month between oil changes: January, March, May, July, Sept. and so on.
