alternative

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ɔːlˈtɜː.nə.tɪv/, US /ɔːlˈtɝː.nə.t̬ɪv/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin alternātīvus,^[2][3] or French alternatif,^[3][4] from Latin alternātus, past participle of alternāre (“to do by turns, interchange”),^[2][3] from alternus (“one after the other, alternate”),^[2] from alter (“the other (of two)”).^[2][5] Merriam-Webster takes it as formed from alternate and -ive.^[6] It is related to alter.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1540.^[6] The adjective, “offering one or the other of two”, is from the 1580s in Etymonline^[2] and 1590 in the OED;^[7] its first sense was “alternating, alternate”, according to the New Oxford.^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

The noun was first a term of rhetoric, a proposition of two statements of which accepting one means rejecting the other, from the 1620s.^[2][7] Of courses of action it is from 1814, and of the other of two things that may be chosen by 1836.^[2][7] The meaning “purporting to be a better choice than what is generally used” was current by 1970, first in reference to the media,^[2][7] in popular music by 1984,^[2] and alternative energy is from 1975.^[2]

Timeline

• 1540 – first known use.^[6]
• 1590 – offering one of two.^[7]
• 1620s – noun, in rhetoric.^[2]
• 1814 – a course of action.^[2]
• 1836 – the other of two choices.^[2]
• 1970 – nonconventional.^[2][7]
• 1975 – alternative energy.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A choice between two or more possibilities.
2. One of the things that can be chosen; an option.

Adjective

1. Available as another possibility: an alternative route.
2. Existing outside traditional or established systems: alternative medicine.
3. Reflecting values different from those of the establishment.

Word family

• alternatively
• alternativeness
• alternative energy
• alternative hypothesis
• alternative school
• alternative medicine

Related words

• alternate
• alter
• alternation
• altercation
• altruism
• other

Usage notes

Some traditionalists hold that alternative should be used only when there are exactly two choices, because of Latin alter “the other of two”,^[5] but Fowler, among others, called this restriction a fetish.^[5] The American Heritage usage panel was evenly divided on the point.^[5]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
6. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press