Dictionary

by the by en · ADJ

Etymology

The second "by" is a noun meaning "a secondary issue". Phrase used since the 17th century.

Meanings

1. Incidental; unplanned.
   • After that, the fact of a Moussa Dembélé double cancelling out Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s opener seemed by the by. 2019 July 28, Paul MacInnes, “Alexandre Lacazette suffers ankle injury in Arsenal friendly defeat by Lyon”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
   • These sudden rains. Not tropical - with lightning, thunder, great release after hours of tension. But more nonchalant, more "by-the-by." As if the clouds, rushing to get somewhere else, were to drop some rain in passing. 1990, Susan Sherman, The color of the heart: writing from struggle & change, 1959-1990:
   • And in the course of interviews on this subject, he is given to denouncing methadone largely on the basis that it was originally called adolphine after Adolf Hitler. That this is an urban myth only peddled by the Church of Scientology is by-the-by. 2008 December 19, Marina Hyde, “Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall, by Tom Cruise”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Forms

Relateds

by the way

Synonyms

occasional · accidental · unforeseen · incidental · causeless · by accident · fortuitous · chanceable · accidental · unplanned · causeless · accidentary · random · lippening · casual · unintentional · random · unintended · by the by · serendipitous · adventitious

by the by en · ADP

Etymology

The second "by" is a noun meaning "a secondary issue". Phrase used since the 17th century.

Meanings

1. Used to introduce a new topic; incidentally, by the way.
   • By the by, I like Worcester's Shrub Hill station, a three-platform affair of 1850 which may look tired but has character and a splendid frontage on a sunny day. 2023 January 11, Stephen Roberts, “Bradshaw's Britain: castles and cathedrals”, in RAIL, number 974, page 58:
   • Now, Mrs. Clarke was one of those to whom caps and crape were the very morality of mourning—she was not the only one, by the by, with whom propriety stands for principle,... 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter I, in Romance and Reality. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, pages 70-71:
   • She could not get it open, and after all my display, I had to take the Curate (whose name, by-the-by, I did not catch) round the side entrance. 1892, George Grossmith, Weedon Grossmith, chapter 1, in The Diary of a Nobody:
   • Well, I lay it down, first, that a book quite unornamented can look actually and positively beautiful, and not merely un-ugly, if it be, so to say, architecturally good, which, by the by, need not add much to its price […] 1893, William Morris, The Ideal Book:

Forms