Etymologically
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alternative

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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
  • 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