On Nov 23, 2013, at 3:47 AM, Andrew Haley <a...@redhat.com> wrote: > On 11/22/2013 09:44 PM, Chris Murphy wrote: > >> Nope, you're wrong. Find a copy of New Oxford American Dictionary >> and look up the words and usage. I seriously doubt even Oxford >> English makes such a big distinction between two words that share >> the same etymology and have no good reason for meaning different >> things. > > I doubt it. Fowler is pretty definite: > > "Alternative (offering a choice) had formerly also the sense now > belonging only to alternate (by turns); now that the differentiation > is complete, confusion is even less excusable than between definite > and definitive."
Sounds like someone at Fowler has a bone to pick, but they've gone out too far on a limb. There is a clear differentiation between definite and definitive that most anyone can easily understand, yet they're proposing there's an even greater distinction between alternate and alternative that no one would care about. In the version of Oxford American English I have, alternate has definitions as a verb, adjective, and noun. Under adjective, the 2nd definition is "taking the place of; alternative" Merriam Webster online, 4th definition for alternate, "constituting an alternative". The 1st definition for alternative is alternate. Chris Murphy -- users mailing list users@lists.fedoraproject.org To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/users Fedora Code of Conduct: http://fedoraproject.org/code-of-conduct Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines Have a question? Ask away: http://ask.fedoraproject.org
