Flounce & Ruffle

Flounce (pronounced flouns)

(1) To go with impatient or impetuous, exaggerated movements.

(2) To throw the body about spasmodically; flounder.

(3) An act or instance of flouncing; a flouncing movement.

(4) A strip of material gathered or pleated and attached at one edge, with the other edge left loose or hanging: used for trimming, as on the edge of a skirt or sleeve or on a curtain, slipcover etc.

1535–1545: Of obscure and contested origin.  Some sources suggest something akin to words from old dialectal Scandinavian forms such as the Norwegian flunsa (to hurry) or the Swedish flunsa (to plunge; to splash) but the first record of these is two centuries after the English is first documented.  Thus more preferred is a derivation of the obsolete Old French frounce (wrinkle), from the Germanic froncir (to wrinkle) and the eventual spelling in English was probably influenced by bounce.  Notions of "anger, impatience" began to adhere to the word during the eighteenth century although, as a noun of motion, use dates from the 1580s.  The use to describe “an ornamental gathered ruffle sewn to a garment by its top edge” (a kind of ruffle) was first noted in 1713, from the fourteenth century Middle English frounce (pleat, wrinkle, fold) from the Old French fronce & frounce (line, wrinkle; pucker, crease, fold) from the Frankish hrunkjan (to wrinkle), ultimately derived from the Proto-Germanic hrunk.  Flounce, flounciness & flouncing are nouns & verbs, flounced is a verb, flouncier, flounciest & flouncey are adjectives and flouncily is an adverb; the noun plural is flounces.  In the industry, "flouncy" is sometimes used as noun, applied to garments flouncier than most.

Ruffle (pronounced ruhf-uhl)

(1) To destroy the smoothness or evenness of; to produce waves or undulations.

(2) In avian behaviour, for a bird to erect the feathers, usually to convey threat, defiance etc.

(3) To disturb, vex, or irritate; disturbance or vexation; annoyance; irritation; a disturbed state of mind; perturbation.

(4) Rapidly to turn the pages of a book.

(5) In the handling of playing cards, rapidly to pass cards through the fingers while shuffling.

(6) In tailoring, to draw up cloth, lace etc, into a ruffle by gathering along one edge.

(7) In military music, in the field of percussion, the low, continuous vibrating beating of a drum, quieter than a roll (also called a ruff).

(8) To behave riotously; an arrogantly display; a swagger (obsolete).

(9) In zoology, the connected series of large egg capsules, or oothecae, of several species of American marine gastropods of the genus Fulgur.

(10) In LGBTQQIAAOP slang, the passive partner in a lesbian relationship, known also as a “fluff”.

1250-1300: From Middle English ruffelen, possibly from the Old Norse hruffa & hrufla (to graze, scratch) or the Middle Low German ruffelen (to wrinkle, curl) but beyond that the origin is unknown.  It was related to the Middle Dutch ruyffelen and the German & Low German ruffeln.  The meaning "disarrange" (hair or feathers) dates from the late fifteenth century; the sense of "annoy, distract" is from the 1650s.  As one could become ruffled, so too one be unruffled, that adjectival form dating from the 1650s.  The literal meaning, in reference to feathers, leaves and such was first recorded in 1816.  Synonyms (though sometimes overlapping or inaccurately applied) as applied to fabrics include strip (of fabric), frill, pleat & furbelow.  As applied to the state of mind there’s disarrange, disorder, wrinkle, rumple, disturbance, agitation, commotion, flurry & perturbation.  One popular use of "unruffled" is to describe the characteristics of an engine which does its stuff smoothly, unobtrusively and seemingly effortlessly (the latter a matter of perception rather than mechanical understanding).  Ruffle is a noun & verb, ruffler & rufflement are nouns, ruffled & ruffling are verbs, ruffly & ruffleable are adjectives and rufflingly is an adverb; the noun plural is ruffles.

Ruffled silk thong in rose pink by Daisysilk.

The use in dressmaking to describe “an ornamental frill" is attested from 1707, derived from the verb ruffle.  Related stylistically to the ruffle is the ruff in the sense of the large, stiffly starched collar especially common in the seventeenth century, a style which dated from the 1520s; used originally in reference to sleeves, it came to be applied to collars after the 1550s, almost certainly a a shortened form of ruffle which described something physically much bigger.  As applied to playing cards, it’s actually a separate word, dating from the 1580s, from a former game of that name.  In this context, word is from the French roffle, from the early fifteenth century romfle, from the Italian ronfa, possibly a corruption of trionfo (triumph).  The game was popular between 1590-1630.  The now obsolete sense of an arrogant display or swagger is from the fifteenth century and the origin is obscure but may related to some perception of those who wore ruffs or ruffles.  The meaning as used in the percussion section of military bands is from 1715–1725 and may have been imitative of the drum sound.

Consciously or not, designers can find themselves adding to whatever post-modernism now is.  Whether overlap or irony, when it hard to work out where the ruffle ends and the flounce begins; pragmatists sometimes admit defeat and describe it all as "frills".   

Describing various flavors of embellishment, flounce and ruffle have long been used interchangeably but in the narrow technical sense they’ve never been synonymous.  A ruffle is a piece of material gathered, usually at the top, the fullness extending the entire length of the fabric, while a flounce tends to flare, almost always smooth at the top and wider and fuller towards the bottom.  In dressmaking, as in any engineering discipline, terminological exactitude should be encouraged because one would be disappointed to receive ruffles if one really wanted a bit of flounce.  For those for who the distinction seems abstract, all such creations can be regarded as just “frilly” although, even within the industry, there are those who call flounces “circular ruffles”.

Lindsay Lohan in ruffles.

As a general principle, a ruffle is created by the manipulation of a piece of fabric cut in the shape of a rectangle.  Actual geometric precision is not required because depending on the garment and the effect desired, the shape may vary but it will at least tend towards the rectangular.  The technique is to gather the fabric at the top into a smaller area; when this is sewn into a seam line, typically at the waist or neck-line, the pleats created by the gather will fall naturally, the swishing movement inherent in the fullness of the fabric being the ruffle.  The outcome is determined by the fabric’s relationship of width and length and the weight and type of material used.

The first ruffles were probably nothing to do with fashion but merely a layered appendage to protective clothing, usually as a form of water-proofing.  In the decorative sense, although antecedents can be identified in ancient Egyptian art, in their modern form they appeared first in the mid-fifteenth century as attachments to the collars of chemises which, as happens in fashion, grew in shape and complexity into the large and elaborated ruffled constructions associated with Tudor England.  Since, although the flow and flourish has waxed and waned, the ruffle has never really gone away, despite the wishes of those who prefer more austere lines.  The ruffle can also be a device, the design adaptable to either (1) add visual bulk to a small bustline or (2) disguise a large bustline. 

Lindsay Lohan, flouncing about in flounces.

The construction of a flounce differs in that the pattern tends always towards the circular, the cut technically the shape of a donut although those both ambitious and skillful can render flounces used both irregular and more complex curves although one often under-appreciated factor in success is the weight and flexibility of the material chosen: the outcome is determined by depth of the curve, the width of the fabric and the weight and type of material used.  For a flounce successfully to work, it needs to “flounce” and the movement can be influenced as much by weight as cut.  It’s the inner edge of the donut which, without any gather, is sewn into the seam while the outside edge of becomes the fullness at the hem, the volume created by virtue of the longer line.  Because the inner edge is so much shorter, there’s not the same need to gather so the results tends to be soft billows of fabric rather than pleats.  The same technique can be used to create a layered effect where the material flares out not at all but instead follow the line of the garment; this is achieved by a cut where the inner edge is much closer in length to the outer so the shape is closer to a crescent.

The flounced and ruffled neckline: Salma Hayek demonstrates the difference.  Salma Hayek’s fine choice of clutch purses always catches the eye.

Ruffles and flounces are most associated with a wrap which extends around the garment but variations of the shape of the cuts and the techniques of attachment are used whenever something voluminous needs to be attached. Flounced and ruffled necklines and sleeves use the same rectangle versus donut model as the larger interpretations, both often used in scalloped cuts.  There being a geometric limit to the degree of flouncing that can be achieved for the cut alone, it’s possible further to exaggerate the effect with the insertion of a godet (from the Middle French godet, from the Dutch kodde (a piece of cylindrical wood)), a wedge-shaped section of fabric which deepens the floating wave at the hem without adding to the bulk gathered at the point of attachment.

Sometimes ruffled: The last King of Italy

Umberto II while Prince of Piedmont, a 1928 portrait by Anglo-Hungarian painter Philip Alexius László de Lombos (1869–1937 and known professionally as Philip de László). Note the ruffled collar and bubble pantaloons.

Umberto Nicola Tommaso Giovanni Maria di Savoia (1904–1983) was the last king of Italy, his reign as Umberto II lasting but thirty-four days during May-June 1946; Italians nicknamed him the Re di Maggio (May king) although some better-informed Romans preferred regina di maggio (May queen).  At the instigation of the US and British political representatives of the allied military authorities, in April 1944 he was appointed regent because it was clear popular support for Victor Emmanuel III (1869-1947; King of Italy 1900-1946) had collapsed.  Despite Victor Emmanuel’s reputation suffering by association, his relationship with the fascists had often been uneasy and, seeking means to blackmail the royal house, Mussolini’s spies compiled a dossier (reputably several inches thick), detailing the ways of his son’s private life.  Then styled Prince of Piedmont, the secret police discovered Umberto was a sincere and committed Roman Catholic but one unable to resist his "satanic homosexual urges” and his biographer agreed, noting the prince was "forever rushing between chapel and brothel, confessional and steam bath" often spending hours “praying for divine forgiveness.”  After a referendum abolished the monarchy, Umberto II lived his remaining 37 years in exile, never again setting foot on Italian soil.  His turbulent marriage to Princess Marie-José of Belgium (1906-2001) produced four children but historians consider it quite possible none of them were his.

Zollverein

Zollverein (pronounced tsawl-fer-ahyn (German) or tsawl-fuh-rahyn (English))

(1) A nineteenth century union of German states for the maintenance of a uniform tariff on imports from other countries, and of free trading among themselves (organized in the early 1830s under Prussian auspices)

(2) Casual term for any similar union or arrangement between states; a customs union.

1833: A Modern German compound word, the construct being zoll (custom, duty, tariff) + verein (union).  Zoll was from the Old High German zol, from the Proto-Germanic tullō (what is counted or told).  An alternatively etymology has been suggested: the Medieval Latin toloneum, from the Classical Latin telōnēum (from the Ancient Greek τελωνεῖον (telōneîon) (custom house) from τέλος (télos) (due, tax, toll) but most scholars prefer the Germanic.  Verein (a union, association or society) is another German compound, the construct being ver- + ein + -en, the colloquial translation being something like “joining one into many”.  Zollverein is a noun, the noun plural is plural Zollvereine (although Zollvereins might be expected in the English-speaking world, possible without the initial capital obligatory in German).

Mission Creep

Changes in the Zollverein (Prussia and the Second Reich), 1834-1888

In the second referendum run on the matter, in 2016 the UK voted to leave the EU (Brexit) and for a while the conventional wisdom was that one's position should be something like : "It may or may not be a good idea; it’s too soon to tell".  That moment has passed and it seems now clear it was a very bad idea.  What the UK joined in 1973 was the European Economic Community (EEC), a Zollverein created by the Treaty of Rome (1957) with the intention of achieving economic integration among its member states and, in the English-speaking world, usually referred to as the common market.  Following the 1993 Maastricht Treaty, the EEC was renamed the European Community (EC) to reflect the extension of the community’s remit beyond trade and economic policy, a structure which existed until 2009 Treaty of Lisbon which created the European Union (EU) a more overtly political entity.  The road to Brexit began in Maastricht, remembered in the lore of the Tory Party's many right-wing fanatics in the phrase of Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013; UK prime-minister 1979-1990): "A treaty too far".

One who can’t be blamed for the Brexit vote resulting in the UK’s departure from the EU was Lindsay Lohan who, in England at the time, operated as one of planet Earth’s more improbable Cassandras, tweeting during the evening in real-time as the vote count was announced.  Unfortunately, although she made a compelling (if at times idiosyncratic) case for remain, of the 72.21% of registered voters who on 23 June 2016 bothered to cast a ballot, 51.89% disagreed and the leave case prevailed.  As an EU pundit, Ms Lohan displayed a good grasp of the issues including the implications for the exchange rate of Sterling and the positive benefits the UK had gained from the adoption of EU workplace safety directives although despite have apparently for a time “lived in Manchester”, needed to ask “where’s Sunderland”, one of the places expected to be among the first to report a result.  Fortunately, for anyone who doesn’t know where Sunderland is, Twitter (now known as X) is the platform to post the question which was soon answered.  Manchester too proved a disappointment, voting to leave, something Ms Lohan seemed to regard a personal affront given the her connection.

Since Brexit, many have expressed the view that had the EU remained a Zollverein and not evolved into a quasi-federal state, there would never have been sufficient public pressure to compel the political class to stage a referendum but Euro-scepticism had quite a pre-Maastricht history in the UK and in June 1975 the Labour government conducted the nation’s first national referendum, asking whether the UK should remain in the EC.  The, there was cross-party support to remain and almost two-thirds of the electorate supported that but then, the movement of people across borders wasn’t the issue it has become and despite all of other matters raised in the 2016 campaign, it was essentially a referendum about immigration, lawful and not.  Those concerns show no sign of going away and for a variety of reasons, the movement of people towards the UK, the EU and the US is likely only to increase but the conditions which were the reasons the UK sought membership in 1963 are not wholly dissimilar to what prevails in 2023.  It seems now unthinkable that London could re-apply for membership but, as Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881; UK prime-minister Feb-Dec 1868 & 1874-1880) famously observed “finality is not the language of politics” and Lindsay Lohan may yet be vindicated.

Nexus

Nexus (pronounced nek-suhs)

(1) A means of connection, tie or link; a form or state of connection.

(2) A connected series or group (objects or concepts); a network or web.

(3) The core or center or a matter, discussion or situation.

(4) In cellular biology, a specialized area of the cell membrane involved in intercellular communication and adhesion.

(5) In digital anthropology, the world’s first web browser.

(6) In law in many North American jurisdictions, the relationship between a vendor and a jurisdiction taxation purposes.

(7) In formal grammar, a technical term in the work of Danish linguist Otto Jespersen (1860–1943) describing a group of words expressing two concepts in one unit (such as a clause or sentence).

(8) In the civil law of Ancient Rome, a person who had contracted a nexum (obligation) such that, if they failed to re-pay that obliged, a creditor could compel them to work as a servant until the debt was paid; an indentured servant.

1655-1665: From the Latin nexus (the act of binding together; bond), the perfect passive participle of nectō (bind) and past participle of nectere (to bind).  Nectō was from the primitive Indo-European gned & gnod (to bind) and was cognate with nōdus (knot), the Ancient Greek γνάθος (gnáthos) (a jaw), the Avestan naska (bundle), the Old Irish nascim (to bind), the Old Norse knútr (from which German gained knude, Norwegian knute, and Icelandic hnútur).  Related were the Old English cnotta (which survives in Modern English as knot), the Old English cnyttan (which in Modern English is knit), the Old High German knotto (knoten in modern German) and the Middle Dutch cnudde (the Modern Dutch knot).  The suffix created the Latin verb of action.  Nexus is a noun; the noun plural is nexuses, nexusses or (the very rare) nexus although the Latin plural form (written nexūs or nexûs) is used in process philosophy, a highly technical branch of the discipline which administers the school of thought that change (ie alterations in the state of relationship(s) between things) constitute the only experience of life (the alternative schools focused on the process of change being understood as inadvertent or illusory).

Australia's defeated 1967 nexus referendum

Section 24 of the Australian Constitution provides for a numerical nexus between the House of Representatives (lower house) and the Senate (upper house):

The House of Representatives shall be composed of members directly chosen by the people of the Commonwealth, and the number of such members shall be, as nearly as practicable, twice the number of the senators.

The senate chamber in the new parliament house, opened in 1988.  The scope of works given to the architects required that both chambers should be able (without major structural change) to be re-configured to accommodate up to twice the number of members.  The building is said to have an anticipated life of some two-hundred years so it would appear in the 1970s, nobody expected there was for centuries any possibility of breaking the nexus between the houses.  Despite the ominous prospect, Australians seem rarely to think the quantity of politicians is lacking although they are often sceptical about the quality.  

Lindsay Lohan in Nexxus Style Swap hair campaign, October 2024.

After an abortive attempt in 1966, a referendum was held the following year which sought to remove the nexus, thereby freezing the number of senators at ten per state (an increase from the original six triggered by the enlargement of the lower house in 1949).  The cabinet’s enthusiasm for curbing any proliferation of senators was prompted by concern an increase in the size of the upper house would make it easier for minor parties to win seats.  The referendum was defeated and the problem persists.  As the number of senators to be elected increases, the votes each needed to gain a seat (a quota) reduces and by the 1980s, a quota in a normal half-senate election was well under 20%; in a double-dissolution, less than 8%.  That, when combined with preferential voting, means votes surplus to a quota flow through the system and it’s become successively easier to succeed, a few senators having been elected with but a handful of first-preference votes.  Section 24 is not monocausal, there being many reasons for the decline in the share of the vote enjoyed by the major parties but the recent success of micro-parties would not have been possible without the operation of the clause.  For a generation, political excrement like the Democratic Labor Party (the DLP, a right-wing, predominately Roman Catholic breakaway from the Australian Labor Party (ALP)) was helped by the lower quotas demanded in a senate of sixty rather than thirty-six.  The modern senate of seventy-six is democratically more promiscuous still.

Lindsay Lohan in a lilac dress, desktop wallpaper available from Desktop Nexus.

In Australia, as in all modern Westminster systems, the major parties alternate in their roles as "His Majesty's Government" and "His Majesty's loyal opposition" but they are as one in their attempt to keep others out of the cozy little system they've designed for themselves and, ahead of the 2016 election, changes were implemented to stop preference arrangements between minor parties and independents producing results said to be "a distortion of the electoral process" (ie independents and those from minor parties being elected to seats the majors regarded as "belonging to them").  Further to advantage the majors, a form of optional preferential voting was introduced, said to have been done to assist voters but the most obvious beneficiaries were the major parties because it became harder for independents or minor party candidates to be elected to the Senate.

Phlogiston

Phlogiston (pronounced floh-jis-ton or floh-jis-tuhn)

In chemistry, a hypothetical colorless, odorless, weightless substance once believed to be the combustible part of all flammable substances and given off as flame during burning; sometimes styled poetically as the “fiery principle”.

1610-1620: From the New Latin phlogiston, from the Ancient Greek φλογιστόν (phlogistón), neuter of φλογιστός (phlogistós), (burnt up, inflammable), from φλογίζω (phlogízō), (to set fire to), from φλόξ (phlóx) (flame).  The most familiar Greek forms were phlogizein (to set alight) and phlegein (to burn).  Root was the primitive Indo-European bhel (to shine, flash, burn (also “shining white)).  Bhel proved most productive, used especially when forming words for bright colors and was part of beluga; Beltane; black; blancmange; blanch; blank; blanket; blaze (as in "bright flame, fire)" bleach; bleak; blemish; blench; blende; blend; blind; blindfold; blitzkrieg; blond; blue; blush; conflagration; deflagration; effulgence; effulgent; flagrant; flambe; flambeau; flamboyant; flame; flamingo; flammable; Flavian; Flavius; fulgent; fulminate; inflame; inflammable; phlegm; phlegmatic; phlogiston; phlox; purblind; refulgent & riboflavin.  As well as the Ancient Greek phlegein (to burn), the word was apparently related to the Sanskrit bhrajate (shines), the Latin flamma (flame), fulmen (lightning), fulgere (to shine, flash) & flagrare (to burn, blaze, glow), the Old Church Slavonic belu (white) and the Lithuanian balnas (pale).  The related forms were phlogistic, phlogisticating, phlogistication & phlogisticated and the scientific necessity of the age also demanded the creation of the verb dephlogisticate (deprive of phlogiston), thus also dephlogisticated, dephlogisticating & dephlogistication.

Alchemy & Chemistry

As the surgeons emerged from the barber’s shop the chemists were once alchemists.  Chemistry began as alchemy, once a respectable branch of learning concerned, inter alia, with the study and purification of materials, the dubious reputation it now suffers because of the fixation in popular culture on its work in developing the chemical process chrysopoeia, the transmutation of “base metals” such as lead into "noble metals", especially gold.  That particular notion of molecular re-arrangement proved a cul-de-sac but some of the laboratory techniques and experimental models developed in medieval alchemy remain in use today.

One pioneer of modern chemistry was German chemist & physician Georg Stahl (1660–1734) who devoted much attention to the fundamental nature of combustion: What happens when stuff burns?  Developing an idea first proposed in 1667 by German physician & alchemist Joachim Becher (1635–1682), in 1702, Stahl proposed that all inflammable objects contained a material substance he called “phlogiston”, from the Greek word meaning “to set on fire”.  When something burned, it liberated its content of phlogiston into the air and Stahl believed it to be chemically inert.  Stahl’s phlogiston theory would dominate scientific thinking for a century.

Phlogiston theory for a while survived even the odd inconvenient truth.  When experiments revealed that burning (oxidizing) a piece of metal resulted in it weighing more rather than less (contrary to phlogiston theory which suggested it would be lighter by the weight of the evacuated phlogiston), the inconsistency was resolved by postulating that phlogiston was either (1) an immaterial principle rather than a material substance (2), phlogiston had a negative weight or (3), phlogiston was lighter than air.  So much did the theory become scientific orthodoxy that when chemists isolated hydrogen, it was celebrated as pure phlogiston.

The execution of Lavoisier, woodcut by unknown artist.  Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier (1743-1794) was a nobleman and a tax collector, neither quality likely much to appeal to the mob which prevailed after the French Revolution.  In 1794 he and twenty-seven other tax-farmers were executed by guillotine in Paris at the Place de la Révolution (now the Place de la Concorde).  A fellow scientist at the time lamented: "It took them only an instant to cut off that head, and one hundred years might not be sufficient to produce another like it.”

It would be decades before those with doubts, and there were a few, systemized their objections into an alternative theory.  In 1775, French chemist Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier delivered a paper he called Memoir on the nature of the principle which combines with metals during their calcination [oxidation] and which increases their weight to a meeting of the French Royal Academy of Sciences.  Subsequently it was published in 1778.  Lavoisier named the combustible part of air principe oxigine (acidifying principle) from the Ancient Greek, the construct being ὀξύς (oxús) (sharp) + γένος (génos) (birth), referring to his erroneous belief that oxygen was a vital component of all acids, this his choice of “acid producing”.  The French adopted the variant principe oxygène and in English it became oxygen.  The fraction of air that does not support combustion he called azote, (no life) from the Ancient Greek, the construct being ἀ- (a-) (without) + ζωή (zōḗ) (life), the idea being the substance was incapable of sustaining life.  Azote is now called “nitrogen”, from the French nitrogène, the construct being the nitro- (from the Ancient Greek νίτρον (nítron) (sodium carbonate) +‎ the French gène (producing).  From this paper, which eventually laid to rest phlogiston theory, emerged the foundations for the understanding of chemical reactions as combinations of elements which form new materials; the birth of modern chemistry.  Lavoisier’s model was convincingly elegant but there were those in the scientific establishment with reputations vested in phlogiston theory and some would prove recalcitrant.  Even when the existence of oxygen and nitrogen had become widely accepted, some remained so inculcated they felt compelled to integrate the old with the new, oxygen and nitrogen a filter with which to view phlogiston; a construction of reality which in the post-Trumpian world would be called “alternative facts”. 

Most famous was the eminent English chemist Joseph Priestley (1733-1804) who, even after personally identifying oxygen and well after Lavoisier's paper had persuaded nearly all others, insisted oxygen was but “dephlogisticated air” and in his 1796 paper Considerations on the doctrine of phlogiston and the decomposition of water, he labeled Lavoisier's devotees as “Antiphlogistians”, objecting to the idea of some “theory so new” and based on “so very narrow and precarious a foundation” suddenly overturning “the best established chemistry”.  Two centuries later, a similarly doomed rearguard action would be fought by the “steady-staters” against the big-bang theory explaining the origins of the universe.  Until his dying day, Priestley never accepted the invalidation of phlogiston theory but the increasingly complicated modifications he, and a dwindling few others, bolted-on to make it conform with the undeniable implications of Lavoisier’s model were unconvincing and by the turn of the nineteenth century, phlogiston’s days were over.

Alternate & Alternative

Alternate (pronounced awl-ter-neyt, or al-ter-neyt (adjective) or awl-ter-nit (noun).

(1) Repeatedly and regularly to interchange with one another in time or place; rotate (usually followed by with).

(2) To change back and forth between conditions, states, actions etc.

(3) To perform or do in succession or one after another.

(4) Being in a constant state of succession or rotation; interchanged repeatedly one for another.

(5) Reciprocal; mutual.

(6) Constituting an alternative (a historic sense in English, revived in US use (and not without controversy).

(7) In botany, placed singly at different heights on the axis, on each side in succession, or at definite angular distances from one another, as leaves; opposite to the intervals between other organs (petals alternate with sepals).

(8) In electric current, voltage etc, to reverse direction or sign at regular intervals, usually sinusoidally ((having the shape or characteristics of a sine wave)), the instantaneous value varying continuously.

(9) In mathematics, designating the members in a series, which regularly intervene between the members of another series, as the odd or even numbers of the numerals; every other; every second (eg 2, 4, 6, 8).

1505-1515: From the Latin alternō (take turns), from alternus (one after another, by turns), the construct being alter (other) + -rnus (a suffix forming adjective from the earlier -r̥inos from -(o)sinos, from -nus or from some -r- or -s- stem + -nus; metanalysis of this suffix led to its free use).  In classical Latin, alternātus was the past participle of alternāre.  Derived forms are the adverbs alternately & alternatingly, the noun alternateness and the adjective nonalternating.

Alternative (pronounced awl-tur-nuh-tiv, al-tur-nuh-tiv)

(1) A choice limited to one of two or more possibilities, as of things, propositions, or courses of action, the selection of which precludes any other possibility.

(2) One of the things, propositions, or courses of action that can be chosen.

(3) A possible or remaining course or choice.

(4) Affording a choice of two or more things, propositions, or courses of action (of two things, propositions, or courses) mutually exclusive so that if one is chosen the other must be rejected.

(5) Employing or following non-traditional or unconventional ideas, methods etc.; existing outside the establishment.

(6) In logic (of a proposition) asserting two or more choices, at least one of which is true.

1580–1590: The construct was alternat(e) + -ive (an adjective suffix signifying relating or belonging to).  The –ive suffix is from the Anglo-Norman -if (feminine -ive), from Latin -ivus. Until the fourteenth century all Middle English loanwords from Anglo-Norman ended in -if (compare actif, natif, sensitif, pensif etc) and, under the influence of literary Neolatin, both languages introduced the form -ive.  Those forms not yet replaced were subsequently changed to end in -y (compare hasty, from hastif, jolly, from jolif etc.).  Like the Latin suffix -io (genitive -ionis), Latin suffix -ivus is appended to the perfect passive participle to form an adjective of action.  Alternative was from the Middle French alternatif, from the Medieval Latin alternātīvus (alternating), from the participle stem of Latin alternō (interchange, alternate). Derived forms are the adverb alternatively, the nouns alternativeness & alternativity, the adjective quasi-alternative and the adverb quasi-alternatively.

Alternative Facts

The phrase “alternative facts” aroused interest when used in 2017 by Donald Trump’s (b 1946; US president 2017-2021) campaign strategist and counselor, Kellyanne Conway (b 1967; senior counselor to the president, 2017-2020).  Ms Conway used the words during a Meet the Press interview to describe the use of statistics quoted by Sean Spicer (b 1971; White House Press Secretary & Communications Director, 2017), numbers which, prima facie, seemed dubious.  The matter about which Spicer spoke was not a great affair of church or state; it was squabble about which president attracted the greater live audience to his inauguration, Barack Obama (b 1961; US president 2009-2017) in 2009 or Donald Trump in 2017.  All available evidence appeared to suggest Obama’s numbers were up to twice those of Trump and if Spicer hadn’t brought it up probably nobody else would have mentioned it but for Trump, who borrowed for his campaign so many of the techniques he’d learned from his career in reality television, viewer numbers were professional life and death.

Kellyanne Conway in hoodie: Miss January, Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute's annual Conservative Women Calendar (2009).

Ms Conway sought later to clarify “alternative facts” by defining the phrase as "additional facts and alternative information" which, when deconstructed, probably did add a layer of nuance but really didn’t help.  Journalists, not a crew always entirely truthful, decided to help and called the phrase "Orwellian", provoking a spike on the search engines as folk sought out "doublethink" and "newspeak"; sales of George Orwell’s (1903–1950) Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) said overnight to have risen several-dozen fold.  The relationship between the press and the Trump White House was never likely to be friendly but “alternative facts” meant things started badly almost from day one.  Noting journalists rarely seemed to show great energy in pursuing crooked Hillary Clinton’s evasiveness and casual relationship with truthfulness, the administration felt unfairly picked-upon.  Journalists thought “alternatives facts” was just too blatant, beyond spin and actually an expression of contempt; they knew politicians were going to lie but the lack of subtlety was just insulting.  Both sides made good cases.

Watching with amused detachment were those with as little trust in what was being reported as in those being reported.  Some observed that “alternative facts” in political discourse was little different from the arguments offered in court by prosecution and defense; law was a matter for the judge but questions of fact were for the jury and for centuries juries had been choosing between alternative facts.  This was not novel and in an era where the conduct of politics was as adversarial as what’s done in any courtroom, nor did it seem difficult.  It’s never been certain just who first said “the truth is so precious it deserves an escort of lies” but it sits well with many.

The difference

Sometimes expressed is the view that in the days before linguistic promiscuity overtook the land, "alternate" and "alternative" enjoyed quite distinct meanings.  If two things were described as alternate, it meant one came after another in a repetitive pattern; if red switches to black, then red, then black etc, red & black are said to be alternating.  If one has the choice between red & black, the two colors are alternatives.  If one declines coffee, one might be offered tea as an alternative. Thus alternate is where one comes after another and alternative is where one is the option opposed to the other.  That is for many the preferred position but in the sixteenth century the alternative did enjoy the sense pendants insist belongs properly only to alternate so there's history but in English, citing precedents from the sixteenth century to support the revival of some archaic use rarely impresses and the blurring of any distinction is just how the language evolves.  In the US alternate & alternative seem now widely accepted as synonyms and while that's perhaps unfortunate, confusion will presumably be rare because the meaning will usually be clear from the context in which the words appear.

The battle may be lost: The international reach of US English means alternate & alternative may in decades to come be universally regarded as synonyms.  

Beyond US shores, the process has already begun.  Both belong to a class of words which sound similar and have a not-unrelated meaning (like enormous and enormity) and the trend towards interchangeability in use appears usually to favor that which is phonetically preferred so alternate is more often heard.  It’s common now in much of the English-speaking world to hear an opposition leader described as the alternate rather than alternative prime minister, something which should be said only when describing alternating premierships such as those of Gladstone and Disraeli.  Where alternate & alternative went in the US the world may be destined to follow: the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) definitely blames the Americans but they would say that wouldn't they?

Alternating prime-ministers, each an alternative.  William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898; prime-minister 1868–1874, 1880–1885, Feb-July 1886 & 1892–1894) (left) and Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881, later First Earl of Beaconsfield; prime-minister Feb-Dec 1868 & 1874-1880) (right).