subaltern
nounEtymology From Middle French subalterne, from Late Latin subalternus, from Latin sub- + alternus, from alter.
1
A subordinate.
2
Government, Military, Politics, War UK A commissioned officer having a rank below that of captain; a lieutenant or second lieutenant.
- 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.1891, Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, London; New York, N.Y.: Ward Lock & Co., →OCLC:
- As a subaltern of 24, Neave was captured in the defence of Calais in May 1940.2003 February 20, Ciar Byrne, “Colditz: remade with love”, in The Guardian:
3
Human sciences, Logic, Mathematics, Philosophy, Sciences A subaltern proposition; a proposition implied by a universal proposition.
4
Human sciences, Sciences, Social science, Social sciences 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.
Literary theory
- 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".2003 August 9, Steven Poole, “Postcolonialism and all that jazz”, in The Guardian:
- 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.2012, Aparajita De, Amrita Ghosh, Ujjwal Jana, Subaltern Vision: A Study in Postcolonial Indian English Text, page 109:
- Derived terms
- subalternhood, subalternism, subalternize, subalternship
- Coordinate terms
- lieutenant