Quote:
Originally Posted by Anaraxes
Merriam-Webster and whatever source dictionary.com uses don't feel obliged to throw in any regional caveats or slang notes. Both of them include a definition for "alternate" that's simply the one word "alternative", making them synonyms.
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As I said, language drifts over time, in this case to conflate the two words. But the two still retain distinct meanings, and that's the distinction I was drawing.
At any rate, I didn't really intend to derail this thread with etymology -- it just seemed like a good place to bring up a common mistake. I've had to fix more than my share of references to "alternate abilities" in books and articles, so if I can drop a countermeme here and there to try to fix it, that's my good deed for the day. :)