眾所周知，法律上的「第三人」其英語譯名不是「the third person」而是「the third party」。那麼，現代「法制文學」下「第三者文學」分支中的主人公（當然還有主人婆）即「第三者」，該怎樣用英語表達呢？
有同志也把上述「第三者」譯成「the third party」了。但那樣譯是不貼切的，因為「第三人」大於而不等於「第三者」，或者說「第三者」是「第三人」屬下的具體的、特殊的個體。
因此，就下決心睜大眼睛，從英語原作中去尋覓「第三者」的表達法。結果總算找到了——『the third man』。可惜沒有把它記下來存檔歸案，因此也就沒有書面材料為此作證。前幾天又看到了「第三者」的英語表達法——「the other woman」。這回，接受了前此的教訓，就不厭其煩，把上下文一古腦兒全都照錄不誤。謹轉抄如下，以饗讀者：
She also has a married lover, which makes her the portly of The New Other Woman...
Richardson, 47, a professor at his State University, is married and says she has never served as anyone's Other Woman, old model or new.
In general, she found, the Other Woman, of today is her pursuing a promising career or trying to get past the turmoil of a divorce.
Richardson found that this happed even to veteran Other Women on their third or fourth affair. The single woman who falls in 1ove with a married man often creates a private culture of Shared jokes "mouthiversaris," and a scrapbook or photo album that takes on a "semi-sacred" character by affirming a relationship that cannot be made public.
The author believes that the number of Other Women 1ikely to keep rising.
As women enter the work force they have more opportunities for affairs and as they get older, there are fewer marriageable men—the age group 40 to 44 contains 233 single women for every 100 single men. But the new Other Women seem to be just as disenchanted with their married men as the old Other Women. Richardson says that "the overwhelming majority of those she interviewed said they would not advise any woman to get involved with a married man.
—Time, January 20, 1986, p. 42
由此可見，把「第三者」譯成「the other woman」是有英語實踐根據的。但是，有一點必須注意——否則要犯大錯誤。因為婦女半邊天，在第三者中婦女充其量也不過半數，要是把「第三者」一律譯成「the other woman」豈不是往女同胞臉上抹黑。故曰：「第三者」的英語譯為「the other （wo）man」。