subaltern

From Middle French subalterne, from Late Latin subalternus, from Latin sub- + alternus, from alter.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈsʌbəltɚn/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /sʌbˈɔltərn/, IPA^(key): /ˈsʌbəltɚn/

subaltern (comparative more subaltern, superlative most subaltern)

1. Of a lower rank or position; inferior or secondary; especially (military) ranking as a junior officer, below the rank of captain.

   Synonym: subordinate

   a subaltern officer

   • 2009 January 27, Agnes Poirier, “The fall of Rachida Dati reflects badly on the French president”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     Two weeks after giving birth […] she [Rachida Dati] was removed and offered no consolation prize other than the subaltern position of No 2 on the UMP's list for the next European elections.

   • 2013, Isher-Paul Sahni, “More than Horseplay”, in Studies in Popular Culture, volume 35, page 81:

     Celebrating the subversive practices of subaltern groups

2. (logic) Asserting only a part of what is asserted in a related proposition.

subaltern (plural subalterns)

1. A subordinate.
2. (British, military) A commissioned officer having a rank below that of captain; a lieutenant or second lieutenant.
   • 1891, Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, London, New York, N.Y., Melbourne, Vic.: Ward Lock & Co., →OCLC:

     She was an extraordinarily beautiful girl, Margaret Devereux ; and made all the men frantic by running away with a penniless young fellow ; a mere nobody sir a subaltern in a foot regiment, or something of that kind.

   • 2003 February 20, Ciar Byrne, “Colditz: remade with love”, in The Guardian‎^[2]:

     As a subaltern of 24, Neave was captured in the defence of Calais in May 1940.

3. (logic) A subaltern proposition; a proposition implied by a universal proposition.

   Antonym: superaltern

4. (social sciences, literary theory) A member of a group that is socially, politically and geographically outside of the hegemonic power structure of the colony and of the colonial homeland.
   • 2003 August 9, Steven Poole, “Postcolonialism and all that jazz”, in The Guardian‎^[3]:

     Young refers sardonically to the existence of reams of postcolonial "theory", and promises to give us "postcolonialism from below, which is what and where it should rightly be, given that it elaborates a politics of ‘the subaltern’, that is, subordinated classes and peoples".

   • 2012, Aparajita De, Amrita Ghosh, Ujjwal Jana, Subaltern Vision: A Study in Postcolonial Indian English Text, page 109:

     In Ghosh's novel, a canonical western scientist is pitted against a counterscientific group of native folk-medicine practitioners led by Mangala, a subaltern in every conceivable meaning of the term.

• lieutenant

• subalternism

•   subaltern on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• subrental, unstabler

Learned borrowing from Latin subalternus.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [sup.əlˈtɛrn]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [sup.alˈtɛɾn], [su.balˈtɛɾn]

subaltern (feminine subalterna, masculine plural subalterns, feminine plural subalternes)

1. subaltern (of a lower rank or position)

subaltern m (plural subalterns, feminine subalterna)

1. subaltern, subordinate

• subalternar

• “subaltern” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

Borrowed from Middle French subalterne, from Latin subalternus.

• IPA^(key): /ˌsʏp.ɑlˈtɛrn/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: sub‧al‧tern
• Rhymes: -ɛrn

subaltern (not comparable)

1. subaltern (of a lower rank or position)

   Synonym: ondergeschikt

Borrowed from French subalterne.

subaltern m (plural subalterni)

1. underling, subordinate