[ad. med.L. subalternātio, -ōnem, n. of action f. subalternāre: SUBALTERNATE.]
† 1. Subordination. Obs.
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lxxiii. (1617), 397. Whereunto it was not possible they could concurre, vnlesse there were subalternation betweene them, which subalternation is naturally grounded vpon inequalitie.
† 2. Succession by turn. Obs.
1616. Bullokar, Eng. Expos., Subalternation, A succeeding by course.
1627. Donne, Serm., xliv. (1640), 441. That use of Subalternation in the service of God, of that, which we have called Antiphones, and Responsaries.
3. Logic. The relation between a universal and a particular of the same quality; the opposition which exists between propositions alike in quality but differing in quantity; also, ‘an immediate inference from a universal to a particular under it’ (Cent. Dict.).
1650. Elderfield, Civ. Right Tythes, 35. It may be … needful to consider her [the law’s] several species, or indeed not so much their contradiction, as subalternation.
1677. Gale, Crt. Gentiles, Proem. 8. The Relate Affections of a Proposition are Conversion, Equipollence, Subalternation, and Opposition.
1697. trans. Burgersdicius his Logic, I. xxxii. 127. By Subalternation we express our Meaning when we would signifie that one Enunciation is subordinated to another, and does necessarily follow from it.
1813–21. Bentham, Ontology, Wks. 1843, VIII. 203. Subalternation, viz. logical subalternation, opposition, and connexion, or the relation between cause and effect.
1864. Bowen, Logic, vi. 155. But of these less perfect expressions some may more properly be regarded as inferences by Subalternation.
1867. Atwater, Logic, 116. This is U, and by subalternation will give I also.
