different between benthic vs groundling

English

Etymology

From benthos +? -ic.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?b?n??k/

Adjective

benthic (not comparable)

1. Pertaining to the benthos; living on the seafloor, as opposed to floating in the ocean.
   • 1878, Proceedings of the United States National Museum, Smithsonian Institution Press, p. 3:

     The benthic environment, except for intertidal areas, has been scarcely explored...

   • 1974, R. H. Parker, The Study of Benthic Communities, American Elsevier Publishing Company, New York, p. 191:

     As the classical approach to benthic community studies originated primarily with Danish biologists, a section is devoted to comparisons of Danish bottom communities with those obtained in Hadley Harbor.

   • 1994, Hans M. Bolli, Jean-Pierre Beckmann, and John B. Saunders, Benthic Foraminiferal Biostratigraphy of the South Caribbean Region, Cambridge University Press, p. 1:

     Benthic foraminifera have been used for stratigraphic purposes almost since they began to be studied systematically.

Antonyms

• planktonic

Derived terms

• cryptobenthic
• holobenthic
• subbenthic

Translations

Noun

benthic (plural benthics)

1. Any organism that lives on the seafloor

See also

• oceanic
• pelagic
• planktonic

Anagrams

• bitchen

English

Etymology

From ground +? -ling. Compare Old English grundling (“a groundling fish, grundel”).

Pronunciation

Noun

groundling (plural groundlings)

1. Any of various plants or animals living on or near the ground, as a benthic fish or bottom feeder, especially:
   • 1922, Ivan Turgenev, A House of Gentlefolk, translated by Constance Garnett, London: Heinemann, Chapter XXVI, p. 155, [1]:

     In the pond behind the garden there were plenty of carp and groundlings.

   • 1929, Robinson Jeffers, "The Loving Shepherdess" in The Selected Poetry of Robinson Jeffers, New York: Random House, 1937, p. 219, [2]:

     […] the ewe called Tiny / Crossed over and touched her, the others turned anxious looks / From sniffing the autumn-pinched leaves of the groundling blackberries.
   1. The spined loach (Cobitis taenia), weather loach ( Misgurnus fossilis), or other member of the loaches.
   2. The ringed plover, Charadrius hiaticula.
2. An audience member in the cheap section (usually standing; originally in Elizabethan theater).
   • 1609, Thomas Dekker, The Guls Horn-Booke, London: J.M. Dent, 1936, Chapter VI, p. 47, [3]:

     when your Groundling, and gallery-Commoner buyes his sport by the penny, and, like a Hagler, is glad to utter it againe by retailing.

   • 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses, Penguin, 1992, p. 240:

     The flag is up on the playhouse by the bankside. The bear Sackerson growls in the pit near it, Paris garden. Canvasclimbers who sailed with Drake chew their sausages among the groundlings.

   • 1924, Herman Melville, Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co., Chapter 11, [4]:

     Passion, and passion in its profoundest, is not a thing demanding a palatial stage whereon to play its part. Down among the groundlings, among the beggars and rakers of the garbage, profound passion is enacted.

   • 1943, Sinclair Lewis, Gideon Planish, London: Jonathan Cape, Chapter VIII, p. 71:

     In fact, most of the mob did not know there was such a thing as a director, and it was the actors and the student orchestra whom the groundlings applauded.
3. (by extension) A person of uncultivated or uncultured taste.
4. One who is confined to the ground, especially:
   1. (military, slang) A soldier who fights on the ground or serves as ground crew, as opposed to a seaman, pilot, etc.
   2. (fantasy) A member of a race that lives primarily underground, such as a dwarf.
5. (Abrahamic religions) Adam, before eating the apple of knowledge of good and evil (emphasizing his creation from the ground).

See also

• (cheap section): nosebleed seat, peanut gallery

References

• Notes from an edition of Hamlet