by the by

by the by

English

Alternative forms

• by the bye, by-the-by, by-the-bye

Etymology

The second "by" is a noun meaning "a secondary issue". Phrase used since the 17th century.[1]

Prepositional phrase

by the by

1. Used to introduce a new topic; incidentally, by the way.
   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Romance and Reality. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], OCLC 24531354, page 70-71:

     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,...

   • 1892, George Grossmith; Weedon Grossmith, chapter 1, in The Diary of a Nobody:

     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.

   • 1893, William Morris, The Ideal Book‎:

     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 […]

   • 2023 January 11, Stephen Roberts, “Bradshaw's Britain: castles and cathedrals”, in RAIL, number 974, page 58:

     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.

Translations

by the way — see by the way

Adjective

by the by (comparative more by the by, superlative most by the by)

1. Incidental; unplanned.

   Synonyms: accidental, causeless, random; see also Thesaurus:accidental

   • 1990, Susan Sherman, The color of the heart: writing from struggle & change, 1959-1990:

     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.

See also

• by the way

References

1. “And by the way …”, in Grammarphobia‎, March 17, 2010

Further reading

• “by the by (or bye)”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.