On Nov 24, 2013, at 6:15 AM, Andrew Haley <aph(a)redhat.com> wrote:
On 11/23/2013 03:55 PM, Chris Murphy wrote:
>
> On Nov 23, 2013, at 3:47 AM, Andrew Haley <aph(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.
Well, Fowler's Modern English Usage is Oxford Dictionaries' reference
work on English usage, so I can say without any reasonable fear of
successful contradiction that when you "seriously doubt even
Oxford English makes such a big distinction" you surely are wrong.
You're late to the party, it's already been brought up, so I really don't see
your point at all.
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/users/2013-November/442622.html
In any case the usage section here clarifies:
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/alternat...
And even for alternate, whose 2nd definition for the adjective form equates to
alternative, chiefly meaning not exclusively. So you can complain all you want about a
silly distinction being blurred all you want. The relevant dictionaries have certified
actual usage and the fact that arguing about it is a lost cause. And keep in mind the
suggestion isn't that the two words are always interchangeable, merely in the context
of being "available as another choice".
Chris Murphy