What's the difference between subaltern and underling?

Subaltern


Definition:

  • (a.) Ranked or ranged below; subordinate; inferior; specifically (Mil.), ranking as a junior officer; being below the rank of captain; as, a subaltern officer.
  • (a.) Asserting only a part of what is asserted in a related proposition.
  • (n.) A person holding a subordinate position; specifically, a commissioned military officer below the rank of captain.
  • (n.) A subaltern proposition.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Subsistance strategies this Toba group has adopted are quite similar to the strategies other marginal or subaltern groups resort to.
  • (2) Though at the time I didn't realise it, both of these narratives had emerged from postcolonial and subaltern studies.
  • (3) In the 1980s, a new strand of postcolonialism, "subaltern studies", not only looked at the history of empire from the standpoint of the colonised and exploited but was practised by scholars in the former colonies.
  • (4) Three sources are explored: local disjunctions of class and gender in India, neocolonial biases in the structure of knowledge on aging central to international discourse, and subaltern strategies within India for subverting Western and elite Indian imperatives of what it means to be old.
  • (5) Realising when Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia in 1938 that war was inevitable, he postponed his wedding plans and volunteered for the army aged 19, joining the Royal Signals and earning a commission as a subaltern in 1940.
  • (6) They remained available as foot soldiers to any general, or at least subaltern, who cared to raise the standard of revolt.
  • (7) His national service was as an army subaltern, and provided a fund of farcical stories.
  • (8) In the first case it may be a way of assigning subalternate roles to them in relation to the efficiency expected of them or a way of mythologizing their condition as one of pseudo-happiness.
  • (9) Edward Fox is something of a Flemingesque dreamboat, with his flaxen locks, his aristocratic lockjaw and his subaltern's bearing (I imagine Fox as Freddie Forsyth's idealised version of himself ).
  • (10) In reality, his regiment was stationed in Germany where, though he was only a subaltern, his responsibilities extended to the meals in the officers' mess.

Underling


Definition:

  • (n.) An inferior person or agent; a subordinate; hence, a mean, sorry fellow.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) So far the Republican primary has spoiled us, from Rick Perry's "oops" to corporate asset-stripper Mitt Romney's admission that he liked firing people, delivered just before he was snapped apparently receiving a sit-down shoe-shine from an underling – not a good look for a would-be man of the people.
  • (2) Far better then, for the movie, to give Roper a billionaire’s island in the sun with a palatial Gatsby -style villa at its centre and a sprinkling of cottages for his underlings and protectors.
  • (3) I am not going to punish you, I just want you to explain to the people and me how do I show off?” asks Kadyrov, who routinely posts photos to his Instagram account of him beating underlings in mixed martial-arts fights, hosting celebrities and other high-profile visitors, and cavorting with his collection of exotic animals.
  • (4) David Cameron doesn't seem to be a sweary type; he doesn't blowtorch underlings or kick the copying machines in the style of Gordon Brown – but there will have been ructions on receipt of those latest migration figures from the Office for National Statistics .
  • (5) The task for Carney is to know when to overrule his underlings.
  • (6) On-set, male actors can scream abuse at underlings and have it passed off as being “driven”; making Wall Street, an unwitting Young had a sign reading “cunt” stuck to her back by Sheen.
  • (7) 'When we were at the Post he was a kind of legendary figure and I was a little underling,' remembers Malcolm Gladwell.
  • (8) Read more Industrial production figures on Friday showed that Greek output fell 4% during May, compared with 0.4% growth in April, underling how far and fast the economy slumped as the debate over a creditor bailout dragged on.
  • (9) This was corroborated when NSA director Keith Alexander and others, under great pressure to justify their (illegal) “bulk” collection of metadata, pressed underlings to produce 54 examples to prove that “total information awareness” type collection “worked” to identify and stop real terrorism, only to have the proffered NSA examples fall apart under scrutiny, leaving only one flimsy case of a taxi driver in San Diego who had donated a few thousand dollars to al-Shabab-connected Somalians.
  • (10) I suppose he thinks getting on the airwaves to big up the HMRC list counts as Being Seen To Be Doing Something, as do his underlings in the Revenue themselves.
  • (11) Henry VIII (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) Irishing around Hampton Court like a bearded love-tank, while trembling underlings hide from lines such as "I love your neck" and "That's my crown".
  • (12) Instead, he became "the most influential underling in Washington", as Mann writes in his book.
  • (13) Variability of fusimotor system tonus is probably the neurological mechanism underling these phenomena.
  • (14) Lower down the scale one could cite the quotidian grumbling in workplaces across the land from underlings hamstrung by their less competent bosses – a tendency observed by Richard Sennett among others, though we can surely all supply examples.
  • (15) "The man is a hero," whispers an underling as Hardy (Kevin Bacon) points at a map and sighs, maverickly.
  • (16) The authors present their casuistry about surgical treatment of the herniated lumbar disc, operated during the period from 1979-1983, underling the utility of the operating field without blood, obtainable with particulare prone position of the patient, also called "egg position", with controlled hypotension, which allow a complete vision without wide hemilaminectomie.
  • (17) Much more often, Heywood’s exact contribution to government policies and decisions is the subject of rumour and counter-rumour, of briefings by underlings and allies and enemies.
  • (18) We were taken into a room where our bags were rummaged through by underlings, the gravity of the situation underlined by just how scared the rebel fighters themselves appeared to be.
  • (19) A key part of this is Sundar Pichai.” Married with two children, Pichai projects the image of a passionate nerd, but without any of the sociopathic egotism that plagues Silicon Valley executives (and their underlings).
  • (20) Pinkston said: “I imagine because of his marriage ties he will probably just get permanent house arrest, but his underlings and confidants and ‘co-conspirators’ may not be so lucky.” Two of Jang’s close aides are believed to have been executed recently.