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.
实用例句
1. She is, first and foremost, her husband's alter ego.
她首先是丈夫的知己。
来自柯林斯例句
2. The current division of labor between workers and management will alter.
当前工人与管理部门的分工将会改变。
来自柯林斯例句
3. Barry Humphries's alter ego Dame Edna has taken the US by storm.
巴里·汉弗莱斯凭借埃德娜夫人一角轰动全美。
来自柯林斯例句
4. He denounces people who urge him to alter his ways.
