by the way
- 1Used to introduce a passing remark that is not timely, central, or crucial to the topic at hand; incidentally.
By the way, your package arrived while you were out.
The meeting has moved to Thursday, and, by the way, Dana says hello.
Similarincidentally, apropos
Note
A road phrase that moved indoors: in the 10th century it meant beside the road, and by about 1000 it meant during one's journey, so a remark made by the way is one picked up in passing. It opens or interrupts a sentence, set off by commas. By the by and incidentally do the same work, and BTW is its shorthand in messages.
- 2Beside the point or off the topic, rather than relevant to what is being discussed.
The hotel was dear, but that's by the way; what mattered was the food.
Whether he apologized is by the way, as the contract still stands.
Note
Here the phrase sets something aside rather than adding it. It is British and usually follows a form of be: that's by the way, but this is by the way. Where the side-remark opener brings in a fresh point, this one waves off the point just made as beside the matter in hand, often after a concession.
Practice
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Origin
The phrase first appeared in the 10th century with the literal meaning "by the side of the road", from Old English weġ ("road"), which became way. Around 1000 it came to mean "during one's journey"; the figurative meaning developed in the mid-16th century, and the modern meaning is first recorded in 1614.