‘Alternate’ is not an alternative to ‘alternative’
It’s spreading and it has to be stopped. I refer to the tendency, widespread in the United States but increasingly evident here, to use ‘alternate’ as if it means ‘alternative’.
It doesn’t, and there’s no excuse for getting it wrong. These two words mean quite different things. Here is the distinction, in capitals, so that nobody misses it.
‘ALTERNATE’ MEANS ‘EVERY OTHER’. ‘ALTERNATIVE’ MEANS ‘ANOTHER’.
Visualize yourself on an upper floor in a burning building. In front of you is a staircase, but it is enveloped in flame. ‘Use alternate stairs!’ shouts a voice from somewhere outside. So you do: you set off down the stairs using every other tread, because that is what it means to use alternate stairs. And you burn to death. Your would-be rescuer knew that there was another staircase at the other end of the building, unaffected by the blaze. That’s what he wanted you to know about, and that’s why he should have shouted ‘Use alternative stairs!’
Next week: why you are very stupid if you use ‘decimate’ to mean ‘destroy’.
