[a. Fr. altérité, ad. med.L. alteritāt-em a being otherwise, f. alter other: see -ITY.] The state of being other or different; diversity, ‘otherness.’
1642. H. More, Song of Soul, I. I. i. Psyche! from thee they spring O life of Time, and all Alterity!
1660. Stanley, Hist. Philos. (1701), 377/2. The Maker of all things took Union, and Division, and Identity, and Alterity, and Station, and Motion to compleat the soul.
1827. Coleridge, Table T. (1851), 45. In the Trinity there is, 1. Ipseity; 2 Alterity; 3. Community. Ibid. (1849), Notes on Shaks., II. 295. Outness is but … alterity visually represented.
