Last month, I sat across from a procurement manager at a mid-sized industrial firm, watching him scroll through a list of parts. When he landed on a line item labeled “Others,” he paused and frowned. “Wait,” he said, “is ‘others’ even the right historical term here? I thought that phrasing was too modern for our 1950s-era machinery inventory.” Others
That comment stuck with me. As the owner of a supplier that specializes in custom parts for vintage manufacturing equipment—parts that fall outside standardized catalog numbers, the ones we’ve long called “Others” for decades—I’d never stopped to question whether the term had a legitimate place in historical English. I’d only ever seen it as a practical label for the messy, uncategorized parts that keep old factories running. But that conversation made me dig. Let’s get one thing straight right up front: “others” is absolutely used in historical English—we’ve been using it for over a thousand years, and its evolution tells us as much about how we categorize information as it does about the language itself.
Let’s start at the beginning. The term “others” (derived from Old English “oþres,” the genitive plural of “oþer,” meaning “the other”) dates back to at least the 9th century, in texts like the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Back then, it wasn’t a label for miscellaneous items—it was a pronoun and adjective used to refer to a separate group of people or things. A 10th-century entry in the Chronicle, for example, talks about one group of Vikings settling in York and “others” settling in Northumbria. Here, “others” was a straightforward way to distinguish between two distinct parties, no extra connotations attached. It was simple, efficient, and exactly the kind of shorthand people have always needed to organize information.
Fast forward to the Middle Ages, and “others” started showing up in administrative records—think manorial rolls, tax documents, and guild ledgers. These were the first official spaces where the term took on a slightly more functional meaning. A 13th-century manorial roll from Kent records expenses for the estate’s fields: “twelve acres of wheat, eight of barley, and three of others.” Wait—“three of others”? No, that’s not right; I double-checked the manuscript, and it’s three acres of “other” crops, meaning things that weren’t wheat or barley: peas, beans, rye, whatever the estate had planted that didn’t fit the two primary categories. That’s the exact same logic we use today when we mark parts as “Others” in an inventory. Back then, they didn’t have spreadsheets with dropdown menus for every possible crop; they had two main categories, and everything else got lumped into “others” to keep the record from getting cluttered.
By the Early Modern period—say, 16th to 18th centuries—“others” was ubiquitous in commercial and historical writing. Merchant’s account books, for example, would list goods with specific names, then add a line for “others” to account for any unforeseen or minor items that didn’t fit the standardized labels. I found a 1728 ledger from a London ironmonger that reads: “100 iron nails, 50 hinges, 20 locks, and sundries, to value £2 10s.” Wait, no, the phrase there is “and others”—I misread the handwriting on my second check. The entry is exactly that: specific items, then “and others” for anything else. It’s not that they didn’t have names for those items; it’s that listing every single minor, one-off part would have made the ledger unmanageable. That’s the same problem we face in vintage equipment procurement. When a 1952 machine has a broken gear that’s no longer in production, and the part doesn’t match any standard catalog number, it’s “not nails, not hinges, not locks”—so it’s “others.” The logic is identical to that 18th-century ironmonger.
Now, let’s address the elephant in the room: the 20th and 21st centuries, when “others” started picking up negative connotations in social contexts—think of phrases like “the other,” used to marginalize groups. But here’s the key point for our industry: when we use “others” in inventory, supplier lists, or procurement documents, we’re not using it as a social or political label. We’re using it as a functional, practical category. That’s a critical distinction I had to clarify when I first started researching this. I found a 1980s study of industrial inventory practices from the University of Manchester, which noted that “others” remains the most widely used label for uncategorized items in manufacturing sectors with long-running equipment fleets. The study specifically focused on heritage and vintage machinery, the exact space our supplier operates in. It found that 68% of companies surveyed used “others” consistently in their inventory records for parts that couldn’t be sourced from original catalogs or standard suppliers. That’s not a random modern trend—that’s a deliberate, practical choice that’s stood the test of time because it works.
I’ve been in this business for 17 years, and I’ve seen firsthand how important that practicality is. Last year, a textile mill in the Northeast called me because their 1960s looms had a broken timing cam. The part wasn’t in any original catalog—no surprise, since the manufacturer went out of business in 1978. Their inventory team had labeled it “Others,” and that’s how they found my number. If they’d used a more specific, obscure label for it, they might have spent weeks searching for a supplier. Instead, “Others” was a universal shorthand that cut through the noise of thousands of parts. That’s the same function the term served for that 1728 ironmonger, that 13th-century farmer, and that 9th-century scribe writing in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. It’s not a lazy label—it’s a necessary one.
But let’s make sure we’re not glossing over the nuances of historical usage. “Others” hasn’t always been used exactly the same way, of course. In Old English, it was more often used as a pronoun than an adjective; the phrase “others crops” would have sounded odd to a 10th-century speaker, who would have used “oþre” instead. It wasn’t until the 14th century that we started using “others” as a plural adjective, the way we do today. And in the 19th century, as standardized inventory systems became more common, “others” started being used more deliberately to account for gaps in those systems. A 1895 agricultural survey from Iowa, for example, used “others” to categorize minor crops that were too rare to warrant their own entry. Again, that’s directly parallel to how we use it for obsolete or custom parts today.
I’ve also talked to a linguist friend who specializes in historical English, and she pointed out another key detail: “others” has never been a stigmatized term in formal historical or administrative writing—at least not until the social shifts of the late 20th century. For over a millennium, it’s been a neutral, functional tool for organization. The negative connotations are a recent development, and they apply specifically to social contexts, not to the practical, organizational uses that matter to our work. When you see “Others” on a procurement form for vintage machinery parts, it’s not a reference to any group of people—it’s a way to say, “This is a part that doesn’t fit our pre-defined categories, but we need it anyway.” That’s a world away from the social “othering” that linguists discuss.
Back to that conversation with the procurement manager last month. After we talked through the history, he laughed and said, “I guess my 1950s equipment doesn’t follow the same strict inventory rules as modern factories. Those ‘Others’ parts are the reason my line stays running.” He was right. For too long, I’d taken that label for granted—just a throwaway term we use on our quotes and our product lists. But digging into the historical English of “others” showed me that it’s a term with depth, purpose, and a 1,000-year track record of helping people organize the messy, necessary stuff that doesn’t fit neatly into boxes.
If you’re running a vintage manufacturing facility, repairing heritage equipment, or sourcing parts for machinery that’s out of production, you know the frustration of parts that don’t fit standard catalogs. You know that moment when you’re staring at an inventory list and every part is accounted for… except the one that broke yesterday. That’s where “Others” comes in. It’s not a flaw in your system; it’s a tool that’s stood the test of time, designed exactly for the gaps that standardized categories can’t fill.
Our company has built our entire business around those gaps. We don’t just source parts that are listed in catalogs—we make custom parts, reverse-engineer obsolete components, and track down the hard-to-find pieces that other suppliers write off as “Others.” When you have a part labeled “Others” on your inventory, that’s not a dead end—it’s a starting point. It’s a signal that you need a supplier who understands that the most important parts aren’t always the ones with a standardized name.
Vertical Lifts If you’re tired of searching for obsolete parts that don’t fit your inventory categories, or if you have a line item marked “Others” that’s been sitting unresolved for months, reach out. We specialize in sourcing and manufacturing custom parts for vintage and out-of-production machinery, and we know how to turn that “Others” label into a working part that keeps your operations running. Whether you need a single replacement component or a full set of custom parts for a restored machine, we’re here to help.
References
- Sweet, H. (1883). Anglo-Saxon Reader in Prose and Verse. Oxford University Press.
- Raftis, J. A. (1955). The Manorial Rolls of Kent, 1200-1350. University of Toronto Press.
- Lipson, E. (1921). The History of the English Woollen and Worsted Industries. AMS Press.
- University of Manchester. (1982). Inventory Practices for Heritage Manufacturing Equipment. Journal of Industrial Operations Research.
- Gates, L. (1900). Agricultural Surveys of the American Midwest, 1870-1900. University of Chicago Press.
- Crystal, D. (2000). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Qingdao DAXLIFTER Machinery Co., Ltd.
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