subaltern, subaltern, sub alterne

& s. [Fr. sub alterne, from Lat. subaltern us = subordinate, from sub =under, and alter =another.] A. As adj.: Holding a subordinate or inferior position; subordinate, inferior; spec if., in the army, being below the rank of captain. "The subaltern officers must be selected among the Duinhe Wa els, proud of the eagle's feather."-Macaulay: Hist. Eng ., ch. xiii. B. As substantive : 1. Ord. Lang.: One who holds a subordinate or inferior position; spec if., a commi ioned officer below the rank of captain. "How could subaltern like myself expect Leisure or leave to occupy the field?" R. Browning: Luria, iii. pine, pit, sire, sir, marine; gō, pot, 2. Logic : A subaltern proposition. "Two propositions are said to be opposed to each other, when, having the same subject and predicate, they differ in quantity or quality, or both guage, however, and in some logical treatises, propositions which do not differ in quality (viz. subalterns ), are In subalterns , the truth not reckoned as opposed In ordinary lan of the particular (which is called the subalternate ) follows from the truth of the universal ( subalternant ), and the falsity of the universal from the falsity of the particular: subalterns differ in quantity alone; contraries, and also subcontraries, in quality alone."Whately: Logie , bk. ii., ch. ii., § 3. subaltern-opposition, s. Logic : The opposition which exists between a universal and a particular proposition of the same quality.