*either*

conj. Either precedes two, or more, coördinate words or phrases, and is introductory to an alternative. It is correlative to or. [ 1913 Webster ]

Either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth. 1 Kings xviii. 27. [ 1913 Webster ]

Few writers hesitate to use either in what is called a triple alternative; such as, We must either stay where we are, proceed, or recede. Latham. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Either was formerly sometimes used without any correlation, and where we should now use or. [ 1913 Webster ]

Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? James iii. 12. [ 1913 Webster ]

conj. Not either; generally used to introduce the first of two or more coordinate clauses of which those that follow begin with nor. [ 1913 Webster ]

Fight neither with small nor great, save only with the king. 1 Kings xxii. 31. [ 1913 Webster ]

Hadst thou been firm and fixed in thy dissent,
Neither had I transgressed, nor thou with me. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

When she put it on, she made me vow
That I should neither sell, nor give, nor lose it. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Neither was formerly often used where we now use nor. “For neither circumcision, neither uncircumcision is anything at all.” Tyndale. “Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it.” Gen. iii. 3. Neither is sometimes used colloquially at the end of a clause to enforce a foregoing negative (nor, not, no). “He is very tall, but not too tall neither.” Addison. ” ‘I care not for his thrust' ‘No, nor I neither.'” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Not so neither, by no means. [ Obs. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]