A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 2001 (DOST Vol. X).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1597-1681
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Subaltern(e, adj. [e.m.E. subalterne (1581), F. subalterne (1476 in Larousse), late L. subalternus.]
1. Inferior in status, subordinate (to another). a. Of persons. b. Of institutions, etc.a. 1597 Aberd. B. Rec. II 154.
That their sal be na maister nor teicher of any school within this burght … (except of the sang school) bot sic as sal be subalterne to the maister of the grammer school 1597 Skene Verb. S. s.v. Homagivm.
Sum are maist chiefe and principall, sik as the King … vther overlordes ar inferiour and subalterne 1597 James VI Dæmonol. (STS) 73/27.
Since in all inferiour judgements … the people may not … displace their magistrats, although but subaltern 1597 James VI Dæmonol. (STS) 73/33.
Whereof some are but inferiour, subaltern and temporall magistrates, and none of them equall … to the dignity of a kingb. 1597 James VI Dæmonol. (STS) 71/4.
Their ouer-lord … changeth their holdings … without advise or authoritie of either Parliament or any other subaltern judiciall seat a1634 Forbes Rec. 435.
Men … who speake and write so heathnishlike of the authoritie of the assemblies of the saints, as subalterne to the civill power of Civill Conventions
2. Of charters, infeftments, etc.: Granted by, or held of, a superior who is himself a vassal of another. a1633 Hope Major Pract. I 174.
The union of landis in any barrony could not be extended to ane subaltern seaseing granted be ane barron of ane annualrent furth of the barrony 1681 Fountainhall Decis. I 131.
The King's donator to the recognition cannot be supposed to have the principal sasines, or the base subaltern charters 1681 Stair Inst. (1681) i xiii 252.
Ward lands according to the nature of proper feudal rights, might not be alienat by the vassals, granting any subaltern infeftment thereof. This priviledge was taken away as to all superiours and their vassals, except the vassals of the King, who only might grant subaltern infeftments of their ward lands
b. Subaltern vassal, a vassal who holds lands from another vassal, rather than directly from the superior. 1681 Stair Inst. (1681) i xxi 429.
Omitted not only by the immediat vassal, but by all subaltern vassals
c. ? Used of a law-suit initiated by one vassal against another. 1648 Sc. Hist. Rev. XIII 382.
An inferior or fewer to qhom againe the other inferior in ane subalterne course
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"Subaltern adj.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 10 May 2026 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/subalterne>
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