I was writing a comment the other day when I wrote a sentence similar to the one below:
You can choose one of either (Pizza, Mac and Cheese, or Spaghetti).
Obviously the choices are made-up, but the point is, this sentence should mean the same exact thing as:
You can choose either Pizza, or Mac n' Cheese, or Spaghetti.
Right?
I've heard that 'either' can be used for more than two choices, so this should be correct, at least, to my knowledge anyway.
But is it? Would you say it differently? How natural does it sound?
Best Answer
If you are one of those people who defer to etymology, then 'either' comes from the Old English ǽghwæðer, "each of two" (i.e. "both"). By the 13th century, the meaning had shifted to its present sense of "one of two". So the word has a history of gradual change. Shakespeare wrote "They say there is divinity in odd numbers, either in nativity, chance, or death" (The Merry Wives of Windsor" c.1597) (an odd number of items, naturally). The "one of two" meaning is relaxed, according to a number of dictionaries, when introducing a list (like the food items in the question), but tends to be more strictly applied when using 'either' as an adjective - "I'll marry either girl, Mary or Jane", or a pronoun - "either [of them] will do". There is a similar story for "neither". The safest advice is to stick to "either of two", and use e.g. "one of" for more than two items.
Either (Grammarphobia)
Either (Etymonline)