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I've met a sentence that I couldn't clearly understand.
The sentence is:

Gogh is staying with him, painting side by side.

I know the expression 'side by side' has two meanings. One is 'next to' and the other is 'together'. Could you tell me which meaning does it have in the sentence above? I guess it's the second one. Please help me out with this.

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    In context, it's ambiguous. The actual words as cited don't make it crystal clear whether they painted together, as a team, on the same painting (the more metaphorical extension of "together"), or they just painted side-by-side, in close proximity (the more literal meaning).
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Aug 30, 2021 at 12:26
  • Surely, Van Gogh?
    – Lambie
    Commented Dec 31, 2021 at 21:40

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I know the expression 'side by side' has two meanings.

  • One is 'next to' and
  • the other is 'together'.

It's hard to beleive no-one said it yet: in this case, it most likely means both.

@JavaLatte even lined up the necessary arguments:

side by side can have a literal meaning, for example when two people are sitting next to each other on a sofa watching television

and

In addition, it can have a metaphorical meaning, where a group of people are engaged in a common endeavour.

As someone who has had engaged in the activity of drawing / painting (also as part of a group) I can attest that

  1. when two (or more) people who are in proximity with each other decide to paint the same subject (or even different subjects, but which are located in the same direction from their position), they indeed position themselves side by side.
  2. Painting is a mental effort, a kind of concentration, a state of attunement. If people have a common goal, e.g. they paint the same subject, or they agree that — as a conclusion to the act — they will show each other their work and share the insights that they learned during creating it, then this mental effort can very much become a shared experience.

Gogh is staying with him, painting side by side.

As this turn of words seems to hit two birds with one stone, I offer it manages to paint a very strong picture, which in itself can earn our acknowledgement and appreciation. :)

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side by side means shoulder-to-shoulder (in humans) or side-to-side (in things) and facing in the same direction.

The soldiers marched side-by-side.

The statuettes were placed on the table side-by-side.

The books were arranged on the shelf side-by-side.

"Next to" comes close to the meaning but doesn't necessarily imply facing in the same direction.

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side by side can have a literal meaning, for example when two people are sitting next to each other on a sofa watching television. In addition, it can have a metaphorical meaning, where a group of people are engaged in a common endeavour.

As this NGram graph shows, the expressions fought side by side and worked side by side are common, but when you look at actual references, it is clear that it is not a literal meaning. Here is a typical example:

The 167th and 168th Infantries were brigaded together and fought side by side throughout many campaigns on the western front. - Journal of the Senate of the General Assembly of the ..., Volume 48, Part 1939

It is very unlikely indeed that two regiments (several thousand men) stood shoulder to shoulder in a second world war combat situation.

I think that, in this context, painting side by side is a metaphorical expression: the two artists were engaged in a common endeavour.

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Yes, I think it's "together" based upon the few context clues I have.

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  • This could be useful if it explained what context clues you were relying on.
    – StoneyB on hiatus
    Commented Oct 27, 2017 at 10:51
  • Well, the phrase "staying with him" lends me to believe that he is there to work together with him. Does it mean I am right? No, I would have to have more than just what you have written, but, in my mind, the author is trying to convey the idea that "living together" connotes "working together". I would need more context clues to be 100% sure, however.
    – Nick
    Commented Oct 27, 2017 at 13:57

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