alter

英['??lt?;'?l-] 美['?lt?]

反義詞preserve

第三人稱單數:?alters;過去式:?altered;過去分詞:?altered;現在分詞:?altering;

1. alter- => alter.
2. => change (something).

alter 改變

詞根al, 異，不同。-ter, 比較級后綴。

alter: alter: [14] Alter comes from the Latin word for ‘other (of two)’, alter. In late Latin a verb was derived from this, alterāre, which English acquired via French altérer. Latin alter (which also gave French autre and English alternate [16], alternative [17], altercation [14], and altruism, not to mention alter ego) was formed from the root *al- (source of Latin alius – from which English gets alien, alias, and alibi – Greek allos ‘other’, and English else) and the comparative suffix *-tero-, which occurs also in English other.

Hence the underlying meaning of Latin alter (and, incidentally, of English other) is ‘more other’, with the implication of alternation between the two.
=> alias, alien, alternative, altruism, else
alter (v.): late 14c., "to change (something)," from Old French alterer "change, alter," from Medieval Latin alterare "to change," from Latin alter "the other (of the two)," from PIE *al- "beyond" (see alias (adv.)) + comparative suffix -ter (as in other). Intransitive sense "to become otherwise" first recorded 1580s. Related: Altered; altering.

2. The current division of labor between workers and management will alter.: 當前工人與管理部門的分工將會改變。

3. Barry Humphries's alter ego Dame Edna has taken the US by storm.: 巴里·漢弗萊斯憑借埃德娜夫人一角轟動全美。