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alternatus

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word alternatus

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
4 BC–65 AD, Seneca
Ultimate origin
Latin alter
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin alterno
Latin alternatus
English alternate
From the same root
Latin alternativus ← alternatus

Forms

alternātus (feminine alternāta, neuter alternātum); first/second-declension adjective[1][2]

Etymology

Used as an adjective, it is the perfect participle from Latin alternō (“to do by turns, alternate”).[1][3][2] That verb is formed from alternus (“one after the other”), from alter (“the other of two”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Seneca's Natural Questions, of aestūs (surges or heats) alternātīs ultrō citrō, “alternating to and fro”: alternate, succeeding each other in turn.[1][2][5]

Semantic evolution

Seneca also writes in his letters of an alternāta seriēs of the splendid and the mean that has brought us from the beginning of the world to the present.[1] Pliny the Elder uses it of the sinews of two animals used alternately, and Silius Italicus of steps dragged by turns.[1][2] In law Ulpian speaks of an alternāta condiciō, an alternative condition: to obey a condition or swear to something else.[1]

In Medieval Latin Köbler finds it in a treatise of Frederick II, in the sense “alternating, different”.[5] English alternate was taken from it in the 1510s.[4]

Timeline

  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of motions alternating to and fro.[1][5]
  • 25–101 AD – Silius Italicus uses it of steps taken by turns.[1][5]
  • before 223 AD – Ulpian speaks of an alternative condition.[1][5]
  • 1246 – Frederick II uses it in a treatise.[5]
  • 1510s – Borrowed into English as alternate “following each other by turns”.[4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Succeeding each other in turn, alternate; of a series, marked by alternations.[1][2]
  2. (law) Alternative.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  3. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de

Derived terms

Borrowed into

Cite this entry

“Alternatus.” Etymologically, 23 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/alternatus. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.

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