subaltern

Etymology

From Middle French subalterne, from Late Latin subalternus, from Latin sub- + alternus, from alter.

adj

1. Of a lower rank or position; inferior or secondary; especially (military) ranking as a junior officer, below the rank of captain.
   a subaltern officer
   Two weeks after giving birth[…] she [Rachida Dati] was removed and offered no consolation prize other than the subaltern position of No 2 on the UMP's list for the next European elections. 2009-01-27, Agnes Poirier, “The fall of Rachida Dati reflects badly on the French president”, in The Guardian
   Celebrating the subversive practices of subaltern groups 2013, Isher-Paul Sahni, “More than Horseplay”, in Studies in Popular Culture, volume 35, page 81
2. (logic) Asserting only a part of what is asserted in a related proposition.

noun

1. A subordinate.
2. (Britain, military) A commissioned officer having a rank below that of captain; a lieutenant or second lieutenant.
   As a subaltern of 24, Neave was captured in the defence of Calais in May 1940. 2003-02-20, Ciar Byrne, “Colditz: remade with love”, in The Guardian
3. (logic) A subaltern proposition; a proposition implied by a universal proposition.
4. (social sciences, literary theory) A member of a group that is socially, politically and geographically outside of the hegemonic power structure of the colony and of the colonial homeland.
   Young refers sardonically to the existence of reams of postcolonial "theory", and promises to give us "postcolonialism from below, which is what and where it should rightly be, given that it elaborates a politics of ‘the subaltern’, that is, subordinated classes and peoples". 2003-08-09, Steven Poole, “Postcolonialism and all that jazz”, in The Guardian
   In Ghosh's novel, a canonical western scientist is pitted against a counterscientific group of native folk-medicine practitioners led by Mangala, a subaltern in every conceivable meaning of the term. 2012, Aparajita De, Amrita Ghosh, Ujjwal Jana, Subaltern Vision: A Study in Postcolonial Indian English Text, page 109