subalternate, a. (n.)
(sʌbɒlˈtɜːnət)
[ad. late L. subalternātus (subalternātum genus in Boethius), pa. pple. of subalternāre: see subaltern v. and -ate2.]
A. adj.
† 1. Subordinate, inferior. Also const. to: Subordinate or subservient to. Obs.
| 1432–50 tr. Higden (Rolls) III. 123, iiij. principalle realmes,..x. other realmes, subalternate to theyme. 1595 in 12th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. ix. 173 What ministers of state and subalternat governors, as counsaile and magistrats. 1611 in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. i. 546 In putting so muche difference between an absolute king and a subalternate Queen. 1638 Baker tr. Balzac's Lett. (vol. II) 79 As though the present time, were but subalternate to the future. 1670 Clarke Nat. Hist. Nitre 51 Medicine being a subalternate Art to Philosophy. 1686 Spence tr. Varillas' House of Medicis 15 The Enditement was drawn up by the Subalternate Judges. 1701 Norris Ideal World i. ii. 104 So only the subalternate sciences suppose their objects, as taking them from the superior science wherein they are proved. 1704 Phil. Trans. XXV. 1702 An account of the several kinds of subalternate Species of Plants. 1874 in Manning Ess. Relig. & Lit. III. 317 Theology is a science subalternate to Revelation. |
† 2. Successive, succeeding by turns. Obs.
| 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Subaltern or Subalternate, that succeeds by turns. |
† b. Logic. = subaltern a. 1 b.
| 1658 E. Phillips Myst. Love (1685) 285 The subalternate genus, as also the subalternate species, is that which is the species of this, but the genus of that. |
3. [A new formation from sub- 21 d and alternate a.] Nat. Hist. Alternate, but with a tendency to become opposite.
| 1829 Loudon Encycl. Plants 571 Leaves pinnat[ifid]: segm[ents] stalked subalternate. 1846 Dana Zooph. (1848) 655 Polyps few and at distant intervals on the branches, subalternate. 1851 Mantell Petrifactions iii. §5. 309 The subalternate arrangement and reversed position of the upper and lower series of teeth. |
B. n. Logic. A particular proposition.
| 1826, 1867 [see subalternant]. |
Hence † subalˈternately adv., subordinately, successively.
| 1606 B. Barnes Foure Bks. Offices 19 Subalternately respecting the purse. 1727 Bailey (vol. II), Subalternately,..successively. |