Meaning
- a second self, a deputy.
- a person's self-aspect.
- people with inseparable friendships.
- another side of a personality.
- in law, an alter ego is someone liable for another person.
- counterpart, especially in fictional characters, acts as the author's alter ego.
- a trusted adviser
Examples in Sentences
- Jack was the alter ego of Rose in the Titanic movie.
- Over the years, the secretary has become the alter ego of his boss.
- She is my alter ego; we are always together in school.
- Clark Kent is the alter ego of Superman.
- I walked to the principal's office and had to talk to his alter ego since he was absent.
- She does not speak too much in groups since Mercy acts as alter ego.
- It is wild that people choose to be someone else on social media to protect their alter ego.
Origin
Alter ego usage was derived from the Latin expression "other I," used in films, famous fiction, and psychoanalysis. Alter Ego is also the name of a well-known computer game. In most cases, the idiom is used in superhero tales, such as those of Batman and Superman, who need a daily human guise.
In the first century BC, Cicero used the second self-aspect in philosophical constructs in Rome. Afterward, the idiom was used in 1537 in English in a letter by Richard Thomas concerning monasteries' suppression.