▪ I. † alt1 Obs.
[a. 16th c. Fr. alte; or modification of the earlier alto after Fr.]
A halt; only in phr. to make alt (Fr. faire alte).
| 1623 Bingham Xenophon 61 Cherisophus, that at other times vpon the receit of such messages made vsually Alt, made not Alt then. 1664 S. Clarke Tamerlane 44 The Sultan made divers Alts with four thousand horse. |
▪ II. alt2 Mus.
(ælt)
[a. Pr. alt:—L. altum high.]
High tone (of voice or instrument); spec. in the phr. in alt: in the octave above the treble stave beginning with G.
| 1535 Stewart Cron. Scotl. II. 627 Mony trumpet into sindrie tune, Sum into bas, and sum in alt abone. 1674 Playford Skill of Mus. i. i. 3 Those above E la are called Notes in Alt. 1719 D'Urfey Pills (1872) I. 52 In soaring Alts his grand ambition show. a 1794 Colman Mus. Lady i. (D.) Your ladyship's absolutely in alt... Yes, in alt: give me leave to tell your ladyship, that you have raised your voice a full octave higher. 1845 Carlyle Cromwell (1871) IV. 60 Voice risen somewhat into Alt. 1864 Browning Youth & Art in Dram. Pers. 155 As I shook upon E in alt. |
b. fig. in alt: in an exalted or excited frame of mind; of ‘high-flying’ views.
| 1748 Richardson Clarissa V. 145 The fair fugitive was all in alt. 1784 Europ. Mag. V. 425, I know you to be in alt, as to your religion. |
▪ III. alt, a.1 and n.3 Computing.
Brit. /ɔːlt/, /ɒlt/, U.S. /ɔlt/, /ɑlt/
[Either shortened <alternate adj., or shortened <alternative adj. (compare alt adj.2).]
A. adj. alt mode n. an escape key on some types of mainframe computer. Now disused.
| 1964 TECO 6 (MIT Memorandum MAC-M-191) (Electronic text) 4 alt mode... Used to terminate a Search or Insert string. 1966 Supervisor Planning Document No. 17 (University Math. Lab., Cambridge) (Electronic text) At present, alt mode sets fault 65 and is used to signify end of input in input modes, and eot, rubout and wru come through as ‘carriage controls’. 1969 K. Metzger & G. Cederquist 4K–CPS: Programming Syst. for PDP–8 Side of DEC LINC–8 Computer (Electronic text) 18 Listing control lines are defined as lines whose first character is either an (alt-mode) or (ctrl-h). 1974 DEC's 1974 PDP-8 Pocket Reference Card (Digital Equipment Corp.) (Electronic text) Altmode..Special break character for Teletype input. |
B. n. In full alt key. A specific function or control key on certain types of keyboard; (now chiefly) the control key labelled ‘alt’ found at the lower left of IBM-style keyboards.
| 1981Orthogonal Command Structures in fa.editor-p (Usenet newsgroup) 3 Dec. Is deleting to end of the paragraph (‘D1EPAR’ in EDT, or ‘C-]C-w’ in default Emacs) an easy or a hard thing. 1982 Byte (Nexis) Jan. 36 Three keys must be pressed simultaneously to restart the system: Ctrl, Alt, and Del. 1992 CU Amiga May (Suppl.) 7/1 Once you have an anim brush, such as a metamorph transition, you can paste it into your animation automatically by holding down the left ALT key. 2000 Times (Electronic ed.) 27 Sept. Hitting Alt and the Space Bar together gives you a menu to Minimise, Maximise or Close an application—again, work these menus with the arrow keys and Return. |
▪ IV. alt, a.2
Brit. /ɔːlt/, /ɒlt/, U.S. /ɔlt/, /ɑlt/
Forms: 19– alt, 19– alt.[with point]
[Shortened <alternative adj. In alt-country n. at Special uses and alt-rock n. at Special uses, after alternative country n. at alternative adj. and n. Additions and alternative rock n. at alternative adj. and n. Additions respectively.
The frequent use of the form alt. suggests the influence of alt. in names of newsgroups within a Usenet hierarchy: see e.g. quot. 1988 and quot. 1988 alt-rock n. at Special uses.]
Alternative; spec. designating cultural phenomena regarded as different or apart from their mainstream counterparts, esp. in having an unorthodox or innovative style or approach.
| 1988Alt Party at Toad Hall after Usenix in soc.net-people (Usenet newsgroup) 23 May Since it's San Francisco, you may find alt.sex (.safe), or alt.sources of alt.drugs, but we guarantee alt.rock-and-roll and dancing. 1990 J. Burchill Sex & Sensibility (1992) 117 This cry was taken up by the alt coms [i.e. comedians]—Benny and Jenny and Lenny and Dawn—who would bang on about Reagan being an actor. 1996 Time Out N.Y. 14 Feb. 14/3 So if the mainstream's ability to mine fringe culture has just about matured, whither alt. culture? 2001 Sleazenation Dec. 107 Munich, the nerve centre of Teutonic alt-electro. |
Special uses. alt-country n. (also alt.country, alt country) = alternative country n. at alternative adj. and n. Additions
| 1993KZSU 90.1 FM Summer Program Guide in alt.music.alternative (Usenet newsgroup) 22 July *Alt. country, bluegrass and folk. 1999 Melody Maker 27 Oct.–2 Nov. 47/1 This American alt-country collective specialise in heartbreak. |
alt-rock n. (also alt.rock, alt rock) = alternative rock n. at alternative adj. and n. Additions
| [1988Re: Final action on soc.sex in news.groups (Usenet newsgroup) 3 Apr. I have created the newsgroup alt.sex. That caused us to have both alt.sex and alt.drugs. It was then clearly necessary to have alt.rock-n-roll, so I created that too.] 1991Re: Rec.music.alternative Nausea Setting in in rec.music.misc (Usenet newsgroup) 1 Mar. I love this paragraph. A ‘somewhat’ specific type of music. And what the heck, let's call it ‘alternative’. *Alt Rock rules! 2000 Arena July 42/2 The band who invented slacker-chic present another alt-rock epic. |