a debate or contest between two friends or acquaintances. The word comes from altercare, which anciently signified to converse or hold discourse together. Thus we say, They never come to an open quarrel, but there is continually some little altercation or other.

ALTERN-BASE, in Trigonometry, a term used in contradistinction to the true base. Thus, in oblique triangles, the true base is either the sum of the sides, and then the difference of the sides is called the altern-base; or the true base is the difference of the sides, and the sum of the sides is called the altern-base.