subaltern

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments  · 
“
A private salutes like a machine; a subaltern is awkward, but a senior officer manages somehow to insinuate into this simple movement deference and admiration, backed, as it were, with determination and self-reliance It is as if he were to say: "I have the greatest esteem for you as a great man.

View all »
Definitions (13)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (6)

  1. adjective Lower in position or rank; secondary.
  2. adjective Chiefly British Holding a military rank just below that of captain.
  3. adjective Logic In the relation of a particular proposition to a universal with the same subject, predicate, and quality.
3 more from this dictionary »

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (3)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (2)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples

  • A letter from Marion himself, to Col. P. Horry, thus details the event On the 20th inst. I attacked a guard of the 63d and Prince of Wales' Regiment, with a number of Tories, at the Great Savannah, near Nelson's Ferry; killed and took twenty-two regulars, and two Tories prisoners, and retook one hundred and fifty Continentals of the Maryland line, one wagon and a drum; one captain and a subaltern were also captured. —  The Life of Francis Marion
  • A private salutes like a machine; a subaltern is awkward, but a senior officer manages somehow to insinuate into this simple movement deference and admiration, backed, as it were, with determination and self-reliance It is as if he were to say: "I have the greatest esteem for you as a great man. —  "Contemptible", by "Casualty"
  • Killed and took twenty-two regulars, and two tories prisoners, and retook one hundred and fifty continentals of the Maryland line; one waggon and a drum; one captain and a subaltern were also captured. —  A Sketch of the life of Brig. Gen. Francis Marion and a history of his brigade
  • Surrounded by a barrage of bluish vapour that rose from irregular mounds of débris, the subaltern was able to breathe comparatively fresh air. —  Wilmshurst of the Frontier Force
  • Satisfied on this point the subaltern was about to retrace his way when he heard a stealthy footfall on the dew-soddened ground within a few paces of the spot where he stood. —  Wilmshurst of the Frontier Force
 

Tags

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

Subaltern has been looked up 198 times, favorited 0 times, listed 20 times, and commented on 0 times.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Add a related word »
Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. French subalterne, from Old French, from Late Latin subalternus : Latin sub-, sub- + Latin alternus, alternate (from alter, other; see al-1 in Indo-European roots).

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from French subalterne = Spanish Portuguese Italian subalterno, from Middle Latin subalternus, subaltern, from Latin sub, under, + alternus, one after the other, alternate: see altern.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
/ˈsəbæltərn/
by American Heritage

Charts
frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word a few times a year.

Recent Lookups

hocus-pocus · riuer · kag · red-breasted · no-smoking

Recent Favorites

emulous · abdicated · pique · mellifluous · zeitgeist

Recent Pronunciations

milosrdenstvi · lichen-covered · futon · sagacity · monoragngocious