LANGUAGE CORNER
Alternate/Alternative
Alternating Current?
The article said a utility "plans to freeze its electric rates for five years, and by 2003 will allow all its customers to buy power from alternate sources." The writer almost certainly wanted "alternative," meaning providing a choice among options. "Alternate" means by turns, or every other, as in "alternate Sundays." (In a narrow sense, where substitution is involved, it can be used to denote choice of a sort, as in "alternate juror" or "Alternate Route 22.")
