different between alluvial vs amass

English

Etymology

From Latin alluvius (“alluvial”), from alluvi? (“an overflowing, inundation”), from allu? (“wash against”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /??lu?.vi.?l/

Adjective

alluvial (not comparable)

1. Pertaining to the soil deposited by a stream.
   • 1992, Anna K. Behrensmeyer & Robert W. Hook, "Paleoenvironmental Contexts and Taphonomic Modes" in, Terrestrial Ecosystems through Time, page 35.

     Soils are a prominent feature of floodplain environments, and we include them in this section because most of the available information on ancient soils pertains to alluvial examples, aside from those in Quaternary-Recent time.

Synonyms

• fluvial

Derived terms

• alluvial fan
• alluvially
• alluvial plain

Translations

Noun

alluvial (plural alluvials)

1. A deposition of sediment over a long period of time by a river; an alluvial layer.
2. Alluvial soil; specifically, in Australia, gold-bearing alluvial soil.

Usage notes

• The noun is normally used in the plural by engineers who recover valuable minerals from these layers.

Related terms

• alluvium

Translations

See also

• deltaic

French

Adjective

alluvial (feminine singular alluviale, masculine plural alluviaux, feminine plural alluviales)

1. alluvial

Further reading

• “alluvial” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

German

Adjective

alluvial (not comparable)

1. alluvial

Declension

English

Etymology

From Middle English *amassen (found only as Middle English massen (“to amass”)), from Anglo-Norman amasser, from Medieval Latin amass?re, from ad + massa (“lump, mass”). See mass.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /??mæs/

Verb

amass (third-person singular simple present amasses, present participle amassing, simple past and past participle amassed)

1. (transitive) To collect into a mass or heap.
2. (transitive) to gather a great quantity of; to accumulate.
   • 1887, Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet, Part II, Chapter V, page 123:

     […] he reluctantly returned to the old Nevada mines, there to recruit his health and to amass money enough to allow him to pursue his object without privation.

Synonyms

• (collect into a mass): heap up, mound, pile, pile up, stack up; see also Thesaurus:pile up
• (gather a great quantity of): accumulate, amound, collect, gather, hoard; see also Thesaurus:amass

Derived terms

• amasser
• amassment

Translations

Noun

amass (plural amasses)

1. (obsolete) A large number of things collected or piled together.

   Synonyms: mass, heap, pile

   • 1624, Henry Wotton, The Elements of Architecture, London, p. 38,^[1]

     […] this Pillar [the Compounded Order] is nothing in effect, but a Medlie, or an Amasse of all the precedent Ornaments, making a new kinde, by stealth, and though the most richly tricked, yet the poorest in this, that he is a borrower of all his Beautie.

   • 1788, Thomas Pownall, Notices and Descriptions of Antiquities of the Provincia Romana of Gaul, London: John Nichols, p. 22,^[2]

     […] others are drawn, not as portraits, not strict copies of these most essential characteristic parts, but filled up afterwards from memory, and a general idea of an amass of arms, without the specific one of a trophæal amass, which is the fact of these bas-relieves.

2. (obsolete) The act of amassing.
   • 1591, William Garrard, The Arte of Warre, London: Roger Warde, Book 6, p. 339,^[3]

     He [the general] must neuer permit the Captaines to depart from the place, where he made the Amasse and collection of the Companies, with their bands out of order or disseuered, although they should depart to some place neere adioyning, vnlesse he were forced by some occasion of great necessity and importance:

Anagrams

• Assam, Massa, Samas, massa, msasa