| 释义 |
alternative, a. and n.|ælˈtɜːnətɪv, ɒl-|
[ad. med.L. alternātīv-us, f. L. alternāt- ppl. stem of alternāre: see alternate a. and -ive.]
A. adj.
1. Stating or offering the one or the other of two things of which either may be taken.
1590Swinburn Testaments 252 b, The alternatiue or disiunctiue speech of the testator..I make A. or B. my executors. 1753Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v., An alternative, or disjunctive proposition is true, if one side or part of it be true.
2. Of two things: Such that one or the other may be chosen, the choice of either involving the rejection of the other. (Sometimes of more than two.)
1861A. Beresford-Hope Engl. Cathedr., I feel bound..to recapitulate the alternative possibilities. 1876Freeman Norm. Conq. I. App. 746, I accept the statements as alternative statements.
3. ellipt. The other (of two), which may be chosen instead.
1838De Quincey Mod. Greece Wks. XIV. 290 The alternative supposition presumed him..the merchant. 1877Kinglake Crimea IV. iv. 50 Who had ready an alternative plan.
4. Having an alternative bearing, purport, or use.
1753Chambers Cycl. Supp., Alternative promise is where two or more are engaged to do a thing..though if either of them discharge it, both are acquitted. 1818Colebrooke Obligations i. 107 To constitute an alternative obligation, two or more acts or things must be promised disjunctively. 1863Bain Eng. Gram. 65 The alternative conjunctions are either—or, whether—or, neither—nor.
†5. Characterized by alternation; alternate. Obs.
1601Holland Pliny (1634) I. 3 He ordereth the seasons in their alternatiue course. 1682Lond. Gaz. mdclxxxviii/3 Churches where the Collation is alternative between the Bishops and the Chapters. 1716Prideaux Connect. O. & N. Test. i. v. (R.) A direction both to the reader and to the interpreter where to make their stop at every alternative reading and interpreting. 1880Gray Bot. Text-bk. 395 Alternative, In æstivation, with an inner whorl alternating with an outer one.
6. Alternative Service Book, a book containing the public liturgy of the Church of England in modern English, published in 1980 for use as the alternative to the Book of Common Prayer (1662); abbrev. A.S.B. (see A III.); alternative vote, a system of voting in which the voter places the names of the candidates in the order in which he supports them. Cf. preference voting.
[1979PN Review XIII. 40/1 The General Synod of the Church..now has the power to create new liturgies and even an Alternative Services Book.] 1980(title) Alternative Service Book. 1981Ripon College Cuddesdon Newslet. 3 Our staple diet of daily offices and daily..eucharist..continues, but now with the Alternative Service Book providing the forms of service. 1983M. Duggan Runcie iii. 39 The synod agenda ranged over a wide variety of subjects. There was revision of some of the new services to go in the Alternative Service Book. 1910Rep. R. Comm. Elect. Systems (Cmd. 5163) 3 The Alternative Vote. Here the voter is invited to arrange the candidates in the order of his choice by placing the figures 1, 2, 3..against their names. 1926Hoag & Hallett Proport. Represent. x. 483 (heading) The Alternative Vote (The Single Transferable Vote as a Majority System). Ibid., Such a preferential ballot is provided under the single transferable vote used as a majority system, known in Australia simply as ‘preferential voting’, in Great Britain and Canada as the ‘alternative vote’.
7. Purporting to represent a preferable or equally acceptable alternative to that in general use or sanctioned by the establishment, as alternative (i.e. non-nuclear) energy, alternative medicine, alternative radio, etc.; alternative society: see society 3 e. Cf. fringe n. 2 b, underground a. 4 d.
1970in A. Sampson New Anat. Brit. (1971) xxi. 401 Cyclops has died. Strange Days has died. Grass Eye and Zig Zag ail. The alternative Press is in trouble all round. 1971[see participant n. 1]. 1973Times 18 May 4/5 An ‘alternative’ prospectus produced by a group of students at Cambridge University has led to a demand by Professor Alec Deer, the vice-chancellor, that it should be withdrawn. 1975Sunday Times 30 Nov., There are all the signs of Alternative Energy burgeoning into a big business. 1978Peace News 1 Dec. 4/3 The Lucas workers have produced an ‘Alternative Corporate Plan’ demanding the right to work on socially useful products as an alternative to redundancy and to the production of armaments. 1982I. Gordon in N.Z. Listener 29 May 67 There is another non-rigid non-school with what in today's language we could call an alternative life-style. Its members cheerfully write ‘Faced with these four alternatives, he chose the third.’ 1983Brit. Med. Jrnl. 30 July 307/1 One of the few growth industries in contemporary Britain is alternative medicine. 1984Listener 14 June 31/4 The demand for ‘alternative’ radio, an alternative to the services offered by the BBC and IBA contractors, has been clearly demonstrated by the persistence of pirate stations.
B. n. [the adj. used absol.] That which is alternative; an alternative statement, course, etc.
1. strictly, A proposition containing two statements, the acceptance of one of which involves the rejection of the other; a statement or offer of two things of which either may be agreed to, but not both; permission to choose between two things.
(This is the only use of the word in Johnson, the following three being unknown to dictionaries till very recently.)
1624Bedell Lett. iii. 71 A long compasse of a sentence..with I know not how many ampliations and alternatiues. 1719Young Revenge ii. i. Wks. 1757 I. 128 My lord, you know the sad alternative, Is Leonora worth one pang, or not? 1794Godwin C. Williams 123, I could not endure to think..of that side of the alternative as true. 1817Jas. Mill Brit. Ind. II. iv. iii. 107 In the opinion of Clive there was but one alternative: that of embracing the neutrality, or instantly attacking Chandernagore. 1853H. Rogers Ecl. Faith 422 The brief, simple alternative of Mahomet, death or the Koran.
2. loosely, Either of the two ‘sides’ or members of the alternative proposition, called in this use ‘the two alternatives’; either of two courses which lie open to choose between. In this use we find ‘no other alternative.’
1814Jane Austen Lady Susan xxxviii. (1879) 282 It is impossible to submit to such an extremity while another alternative remains. 1858Buchanan Message to Congr. 6 Dec., I could make no better arrangement, and there was no other alternative. 1864J. H. Newman Apol. Life 329 There are but two alternatives, the way to Rome, and the way to Atheism.
3. esp. The other or remaining course; thing which may be chosen instead. In this use we find ‘no alternative’ (which may also = no choice; see 1).
[1760Sterne Tr. Shandy (1802) IX. ii. 211 There was no alternative in my uncle Toby's wardrobe.] 1836J. Gilbert Chr. Atonem. i. (1852) 19 Yet law was never so repealed but that it still remained as the alternative. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. §2. 19 We had therefore no alternative but to pack up. 1867Buckle Civilis. III. iii. 146 A fate compared to which death would have been a joyful alternative.
4. Extended to, A choice between more than two things; or one of several courses which may be chosen.
1848Mill Pol. Econ. (1865) I. 404 The alternative seemed to be either death, or to be permanently supported by other people, or a radical change in the economical arrangements. 1857Gladstone Oxf. Ess. 26 My decided preference is for the fourth and last of these alternatives.
†5. Alternate course; alternation. Obs.
1732Berkeley Min. Philos. I. 69 The actual enjoyment is very short, and the alternative of Appetite and Disgust long. 1782Wedgwood in Phil. Trans. LXXII. 317 They bear sudden alternatives of heat and cold.
Add:[A.] [7.] alternative therapy.
1978Washington Post 6 May a3/4 When specialists ordered radiation treatments, the Greens decided to seek alternative therapy. 1989R. Coward Whole Truth (1990) i. 15 This sense of the virtue of being natural is by no means confined to alternative therapies. It is a widespread and prevalent feeling: if it's natural, then it must be good for us. 1992N.Y. Times Mag. 17 May 46/1, I don't rule out alternative therapy: if you want to try other things like acupuncture or diet, feel free to explore them.
8. Special Collocations. alternative birth (or birthing) orig. U.S., any method of childbirth in which the delivery occurs at home or in a similar environment, often without the use of painkilling drugs or obstetric instruments.
1978Time 24 Apr. 60/3 Illinois Masonic's *alternative birthing center is a small, completely independent unit with two bedrooms, a nurses' station with rolltop desk, and a small lounge where family and friends can wait. 1981N.Y. Times 21 Sept. b14/1 Sibling preparation classes, pioneered in 1976 at the Alternative Birth Center in San Francisco's Mount Zion Hospital and Medical Center. 1987Los Angeles Times 14 Sept. v. 2/1 The alternative birth movement of a decade ago forced hospitals to expand delivery departments to include birthing centers. 1992J. Mitford Amer. Way of Birth iv. xiii. 209 Dotted around the country are scores of ‘freestanding’ or ‘alternative’ birth centers, organized to provide maternity care for low-risk women who want to avoid the impersonal, sterile atmosphere of a hospital.
alternative comedy, a style of comedy first popular in the 1980s which seeks to reject certain established (esp. racist or sexist) comic stereotypes, and is typically characterized by aggressively physical performance, and a leftist political stance; so alternative comedian, comedienne.
1980Time Out 17 Oct. 30/5 *Alternative comedy has come of age and you have nothing to use but your chains. 1981Sunday Times 13 Sept. 32/5 The final run-through was completed... Throughout, Alexei Sayle, the alternative comedian, had sat in the aisle spurning the bourgeois comfort of a seat. 1986Melody Maker 19 Apr. 9/2 Alternative comedian Ade Edmondson and alternative comedienne Jennifer Saunders introduce their alternative sprog. 1989Wilmut & Rosengard Didn't you kill my Mother-in-Law p. xiii, In another way, ‘alternative’ comedy is simply a rejection of the preceding fashions in comedy—just as each new generation of comics has sought to build their own style rather than stay in the well-established mould. 1993Guardian 10 Dec. II. 3/4 Pre-alternative comedians cracked mother-in-law jokes. Alternative comedians cracked Margaret Thatcher jokes. Post-alternative comedians don't crack jokes about either.
alternative fuel, a fuel for motor vehicles other than the usual ones of petrol and diesel oil.
1924Nature 14 June 866/2 Excluding benzol..*alternative fuels of greatest promise include ‘tetralin’ (tetrahydronaphthalene), which, mixed with benzol and alcohol, was used considerably by the Germans during the war. 1990Sci. Amer. May 60/3 In many ways, being the first on the scene with an alternative-fuel vehicle might not be an enviable position. 1991Impact (UNESCO) XLI. 98 Alternative fuels such as ethanol and methanol have gained ground in California as part of a strategy to achieve air quality standards.
alternative technology, technology designed to conserve natural resources and avoid harm to the environment, esp. by harnessing renewable energy sources such as wind- or solar power. Cf. soft a. IV. 28 d.
1972E. Goldsmith et al. in Ecologist Jan. 8/2 The invention, promotion and application of *alternative technologies which are energy and materials conservative. 1984Forbes (N.Y.) 12 Mar. 174/2 What about alternative technologies such as magnetic levitation (‘maglev’), where the train floats friction-free above the rails? 1991Whole Earth Rev. Summer 133/3 Computers are not alternative technologies. They are energy consumptive and lock a person into the system of Earth destruction.
[B.] 6. One who or that which represents an unorthodox style or approach (see sense 7 of the adj.).
1984Times 31 July 10/3 The soft punks and the new romantics and the alternatives and the posers..are massaged by music which depends for its impact as much upon producer as upon the artist. 1988Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 27 Sept. 17/2 Jennifer is a 20-year-old Alternative, with short platinum hair jelled and sprayed into a cone, bright face, smart casual clothes and heavy worker's boots. 1990Catholic Herald 30 Nov. 7/1 Clare was not a down-and-out. She was an alternative, whatever that was supposed to mean. 1990Health Guardian Nov.–Dec. 1/1 This was not an alternatives versus the medics debate. 1992Buffalo News 23 Aug. g5/1 This is music that is out of the commercial mainstream. Alternative includes the gothic sound of Peter Murphy, the humour of the Barenaked Ladies and everything in between.
▸ alternative country n. orig. U.S. country music with an unorthodox style, often incorporating elements of rock.
[1985Los Angeles Times 13 Oct. (Calendar) 58/3 The Men made their concert debut at an event called the Alternative Country Festival that year.] 1990Chicago Tribune 20 May xiii. 30/4 On a lot of dates, Triad has begun teaming Southern Pacific with Restless Heart... ‘This is a perfect evening of entertainment, because it's *alternative-country that complements really nicely.’ 2001Observer 21 Oct. (Rev. section) 14/2 It's been called Americana, neo-country, and alternative country, and it was born—depending on who you ask—when the American grunge movement died, when the angelic country soul singer Gram Parsons declared his vision of ‘Cosmic American Music’ in the late Sixties, or when Hank Williams first strapped on his two-dollar guitar.
▸ alternative energy n.perhaps originally shortened > n. energy obtained from a source other than conventional or fossil fuels (usually excluding nuclear energy); spec. energy obtained in a way that does not deplete the earth's resources or otherwise harm the environment, such as wind, solar, or tidal energy.
[1956Geogr. Rev. 46 281 A chapter on natural gas is followed by two chapters devoted to alternative energy sources—coal hydrogenation products, shale oil, water power, and..nuclear and solar energy.] 1975Sunday Times 30 Nov. (Mag.) 75/4 There are all the signs of *Alternative Energy burgeoning into a big business. 1980N.Y. Times 27 Sept. ii. 32/2 Wheelabrator-Frye will be uniquely capable of providing engineering and technical expertise as the world moves toward alternative energy and synfuels. 1995Sci. News 6 May 274/3 A community in Vermont that will save more than $1 million by converting to a wood chip heating system in its local high school and a large-scale wind project in Iowa are just 2 of the 75 active alternative energy scenarios profiled in this guide. 2003AMC Outdoors Mag. Oct. 23/1 A buzzword in alternative-energy circles, ‘biomass’ refers to vegetation and products that come from it.
▸ alternative fuel vehicle n. a motor vehicle designed to run on a fuel other than petrol or diesel, such as natural gas, methanol, or electricity, esp. with the aim of reducing the emission of pollutants or the use of fossil-fuel resources; abbreviated AFV.
[1977Christian Sci. Monitor 3 June 1/3 It’s the third annual Mt. Washington hill climb for alternative-fueled vehicles to be run this year, June 23–25. From steam, electric, and flywheel engines—to a diesel that runs on waste cooking fats.] 1979Establishment Public Transportation Trust Fund Program (Hearings before U.S. Congr. House Public Works & Transportation Comm.) 77 Newark, New Jersey... Research is being conducted into *alternative fuel vehicles (propane, electric, gasohol). 2000N.Y. Times Mag. 16 July 3 (advt.) A team of designers created the look that is turning heads in the U.S. and overseas, for Toyota's breakthrough alternative fuel vehicle, the Prius. 2005C. D. Anderson & J. Anderson Electr. & Hybrid Cars v. 157 The most commonly reported problem in the acceptance of Alternative Fuel Vehicles in fleet use is the lack of infrastructure, including a lack of fueling stations.
▸ alternative music n. orig. U.S. popular music which is considered to be unorthodox or outside of the mainstream; spec. = alternative rock n. at Additions.
[1978N.Y. Times 21 May ii. 37/8 Jazz. In concert. Alternative Music Ensemble.] 1978Washington Post 15 Oct. l2 He played the Rogue and Jar and the One Step Down before heading north to the Zu Manifestival of *alternative music in New York. 1996Music Week 27 Apr. 4/1 Just as in the US where so-called alternative music..is now the mainstream, indie music in the UK is now far too broad and popular to be shoehorned into a category defined by distribution. 2007Clash July 117/2 The Bongos were formed back in the mists of time in Hoboken, New Jersey and, along with their peers REM, set out the template for much of the alternative music (‘college rock’) to come out of the States in the 80s.
▸ alternative rock n. orig. U.S. rock music characterized by an unorthodox or uncommercialized style or approach, esp. as distributed by an independent record label.
[1981Washington Post c11/3 Jefferson Starship is an alternative rock group. That is, they give an audience a taster's choice of stances—the psychedelic origins, the sci-fi middle ground and the metallic dead end.] 1986Los Angeles Times 19 Jan. (Calendar) 74 Listeners..loyally supported the Long Beach-based station's eclectic, *alternative-rock play list. 2000C. H. Hansen & R. D. Hansen in D. Zillmann et al. Media Entertainm. x. 181 They grouped the videos into eight types of music (rap, soul, country, heavy metal, pop, classic rock, alternative rock, and other). |