[idiomatic English, first popularized by Alexander Pope c. 1730[1]]
Briefly; to sum up.
"I knew that all the ships from Europe, which sailed either to the coast of Guinea or to Brazil, or to the East Indies, made this cape, or those islands; and, in a word, I put the whole of my fortune upon this single point, either that I must meet with some ship or must perish." -- Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, Ch. III
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1 Though Robinson Crusoe was published in 1719, which just goes to show that you shouldn't trust the etymological information provided in free online dictionaries of idioms.
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