different between root vs ground

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: ro?ot, IPA^(key): /?u?t/
• (Midwestern US) IPA^(key): /??t/
• Rhymes: -u?t, -?t
• Homophones: route (some pronunciations), rute

Etymology 1

From Middle English rote, root, roote (“the underground part of a plant”), from late Old English r?t, from Old Norse rót (Icelandic rót), from Proto-Germanic *wr?ts, from Proto-Indo-European *wréh?ds (“root”); cognate with wort, radish, and radix.

Noun

root (countable and uncountable, plural roots)

2. The part of a plant, generally underground, that anchors and supports the plant body, absorbs and stores water and nutrients, and in some plants is able to perform vegetative reproduction.

   Hyponym: taproot

3. A root vegetable.

   • [...] two fields which should have been sown with roots in the early summer were not sown because the ploughing had not been completed early enough.

4. The part of a tooth extending into the bone holding the tooth in place.

5. The part of a hair under the skin that holds the hair in place.

6. The part of a hair near the skin that has not been dyed, permed, or otherwise treated.

7. (figuratively) The primary source; origin.

   Synonyms: basis, origin, source

   • , Book 1

     They were the roots out of which sprang two distinct people.
8. (arithmetic) Of a number or expression, a number which, when raised to a specified power, yields the specified number or expression.

   Hyponyms: cube root, functional root, square root

9. (arithmetic) A square root (understood if no power is specified; in which case, “the root of” is often abbreviated to “root”).
   • 1899, Dante Gabriel Rossetti (transl.), The New Life (La Vita Nuova) of Dante Alighieri, Siddall edition, page 122.

     The number three is the root of the number nine; […] being multiplied merely by itself, it produceth nine, as we manifestly perceive that three times three are nine.

10. (mathematical analysis) A zero (of an equation).

    Synonym: zero

    Antonym: pole

    Holonym: kernel

11. (graph theory, computing) The single node of a tree that has no parent.
12. (linguistic morphology) The primary lexical unit of a word, which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents. Inflectional stems often derive from roots.

    Coordinate term: stem
13. (linguistics) A word from which another word or words are derived.

    Synonym: etymon

14. (music) The fundamental tone of any chord; the tone from whose harmonics, or overtones, a chord is composed.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Busby to this entry?)

15. The lowest place, position, or part.
    • 1812, Robert Southey, Omniana

      the roots of the mountains

16. (computing) In UNIX terminology, the first user account with complete access to the operating system and its configuration, found at the root of the directory structure; the person who manages accounts on a UNIX system.

    Synonyms: superuser, root account, root user

17. (computing) The highest directory of a directory structure which may contain both files and subdirectories.

18. (slang) A penis, especially the base of a penis.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

root (third-person singular simple present roots, present participle rooting, simple past and past participle rooted)

1. To grow roots; to enter the earth, as roots; to take root and begin to grow.

   • In deep grounds the weeds root the deeper.
2. To prepare, oversee, or otherwise cause the rooting of cuttings

3. To be firmly fixed; to be established.
   • 1823, Gilbert Burnet, The Life of Sir Matthew Hale, Knt., Sometime Lord Chief Justice of His Majesty's Court of King's-Bench

     If any irregularity chanced to intervene and to cause misapprehensions, he gave them not leave to root and fasten by concealment.
4. (computing slang, transitive) To get root or privileged access on a computer system or mobile phone, often through bypassing some security mechanism.

   Synonym: (mobile phone) jailbreak

Etymology 2

From Middle English wr?ten (“to dig with the snout”), from Old English wr?tan, from Proto-Germanic *wr?tan? (“to dig out, to root”). Related to Old English wr?t (“snout; trunk”). Loss of initial w- probably due to influence from the related noun (Etymology 1).

Verb

root (third-person singular simple present roots, present participle rooting, simple past and past participle rooted)

2. (transitive, intransitive) To turn up or dig with the snout.
   • c. 1515–1516, published 1568, John Skelton, Again?t venemous tongues enpoy?oned with ?claunder and fal?e detractions &c.:

     Such tunges ?huld be torne out by the harde rootes,
     Hoyning like hogges that groynis and wrotes.

3. (by extension) To seek favour or advancement by low arts or grovelling servility; to fawn.
   • 1592, William Shakespeare, Richard III, Act I, scene 3:

     Thou elvish-marked, abortive, rooting hog!

4. (intransitive) To rummage; to search as if by digging in soil.

   Synonyms: dig out, root out, rummage

5. (transitive) To root out; to abolish.
   • The Lord rooted them out of their land [...] and cast them into another land.

6. (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, vulgar, slang) To have sexual intercourse.

   Synonyms: screw, bang, (US) drill, (British) shag; see also Thesaurus:copulate with

Usage notes

• The Australian/New Zealand sexual sense is somewhat milder than fuck but still quite coarse, and certainly not for polite conversation. The sexual sense will often be understood, unless care is taken with the context to make the rummage sense clear, or root through or root around is used. The past participle rooted is equivalent to fucked in the figurative sense of broken or tired, but rooting has only the direct verbal sense; it is not an all-purpose intensive like fucking.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

root (plural roots)

1. (Australia, New Zealand, vulgar, slang) An act of sexual intercourse.

   Synonyms: (UK, US) screw, (UK) shag; see also Thesaurus:copulation

2. (Australia, New Zealand, vulgar, slang) A sexual partner.

   Synonym: (US) screw

Usage notes

• The Australian/New Zealand sexual sense of root is somewhat milder than fuck but still quite coarse, certainly not for polite conversation. The normal usage is to have a root or similar.

Translations

Etymology 3

Possibly an alteration of rout (“to make a loud noise”), influenced by hoot.

Verb

root (third-person singular simple present roots, present participle rooting, simple past and past participle rooted)

1. (intransitive, with "for" or "on", US) To cheer (on); to show support (for) and hope for the success of. (See root for.) [late 19th century]

   Synonyms: (Australia, New Zealand) barrack, cheer on

   • 1908, Jack Norworth, Take Me Out to the Ball Game

     Let me root, root, root for the home team,

Translations

Anagrams

• Toor, Toro, roto, roto-, toro, troo

Chinese

Etymology

Borrowed from English root.

Verb

root

1. (computing slang) to root (an Android device) (to get root or privileged access)

   ????root????? [MSC, trad.]
   ????root????? [MSC, simp.]

   Zhè bù sh?uj? root hòu bù b?oxi?. [Pinyin]

   This mobile phone will not be guaranteed if it is rooted.

See also

• ????? (yuèyù, “to jailbreak”)

German Low German

Alternative forms

• raud
• rauth
• rod, rood
• rot, roth

Etymology

From Old Saxon r?d, from Proto-Germanic *raudaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h?rowd?ós < *h?rewd?-. Compare Dutch rood, German rot, West Frisian read, English red, Danish rød.

Adjective

root (comparative röder, superlative röödst)

1. red

Declension

Middle Dutch

Etymology

From Old Dutch r?t, from Proto-Germanic *raudaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h?rowd?ós, from the root *h?rewd?-.

Adjective

rôot

1. red

Inflection

This adjective needs an inflection-table template.

Descendants

• Dutch: rood
  • Afrikaans: rooi
• Limburgish: roead

Further reading

• “root”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• Verwijs, E.; Verdam, J. (1885–1929) , “root (I)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, ?ISBN, page I

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English r?t.

Noun

root

1. Alternative form of rote (“root”)

Etymology 2

Unknown.

Noun

root

1. Alternative form of rote (“habit”)

Etymology 3

A back-formation from roten (“to rot”).

Noun

root

1. Alternative form of rot

Plautdietsch

Adjective

root

1. red

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from English root.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /??ut??/

Noun

root m (plural roots)

1. (computing) root (user with complete access to the operating system)

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??a?nd/
• Rhymes: -a?nd

Etymology 1

From Middle English grounde, from Old English grund, from Proto-Germanic *grunduz, from Proto-Indo-European *g?r?mtu-. Cognate with West Frisian grûn, Dutch grond and German Grund. Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian grundë (“brittle earth”).

Alternative forms

• GND (contraction used in electronics)

Noun

ground (countable and uncountable, plural grounds)

2. The surface of the Earth, as opposed to the sky or water or underground.
   • Mind you, clothes were clothes in those days. […] Frills, ruffles, flounces, lace, complicated seams and gores: not only did they sweep the ground and have to be held up in one hand elegantly as you walked along, but they had little capes or coats or feather boas.
3. (uncountable) Terrain.
4. Soil, earth.

5. (countable) The bottom of a body of water.
6. Basis, foundation, groundwork, legwork.
7. (chiefly in the plural) Reason, (epistemic) justification, cause.

8. Background, context, framework, surroundings.
9. (historical) The area on which a battle is fought, particularly as referring to the area occupied by one side or the other. Often, according to the eventualities, "to give ground" or "to gain ground".
10. (figuratively, by extension) Advantage given or gained in any contest; e.g. in football, chess, debate or academic discourse.
11. The plain surface upon which the figures of an artistic composition are set.

    crimson flowers on a white ground

12. (sculpture) A flat surface upon which figures are raised in relief.
13. (point lace) The net of small meshes upon which the embroidered pattern is applied.

    Brussels ground

14. (etching) A gummy substance spread over the surface of a metal to be etched, to prevent the acid from eating except where an opening is made by the needle.
15. (architecture, chiefly in the plural) One of the pieces of wood, flush with the plastering, to which mouldings etc. are attached.

    Grounds are usually put up first and the plastering floated flush with them.

16. (countable) A soccer stadium.

17. (electricity, Canada and US) An electrical conductor connected to the earth, or a large conductor whose electrical potential is taken as zero (such as a steel chassis).
18. (countable, cricket) The area of grass on which a match is played (a cricket field); the entire arena in which it is played; the part of the field behind a batsman's popping crease where he can not be run out (hence to make one's ground).
19. (music) A composition in which the bass, consisting of a few bars of independent notes, is continually repeated to a varying melody.
20. (music) The tune on which descants are raised; the plain song.
    • 1592, William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of Richard III, act III, scene vii, in: The Works of Shake?pear V (1726), page 149:

      Buck[ingham]   The Mayor is here at hand; pretend ?ome fear, // Be not you ?poke with, but by mighty ?uit; // And look you get a prayer-book in your hand, // And ?tand between two churchmen, good my lord, // For on that ground I’ll build a holy de?cant: // And be not ea?ily won to our reque?ts: // Play the maid’s part, ?till an?wer nay, and take it.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Moore (Encyc.) to this entry?)

21. The pit of a theatre.
    • 1614, Ben Jonson, Bartholomew Fair

      the understanding gentlemen o' the ground here ask'd my judgment

Synonyms

• (electricity) earth (British)

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

• Pages starting with “ground”.

Translations

See also

• floor
• terra firma

Verb

ground (third-person singular simple present grounds, present participle grounding, simple past and past participle grounded)

1. (US) To connect (an electrical conductor or device) to a ground.

   Synonym: earth

2. (transitive) To punish, especially a child or teenager, by forcing them to stay at home and/or give up certain privileges.

   Synonym: gate

   If you don't clean your room, I'll have no choice but to ground you.

   Eric, you are grounded until further notice for lying to us about where you were last night!

   My kids are currently grounded from television.

3. (transitive) To forbid (an aircraft or pilot) to fly.

   Because of the bad weather, all flights were grounded.

4. To give a basic education in a particular subject; to instruct in elements or first principles.

   Jim was grounded in maths.

5. (baseball) To hit a ground ball. Compare fly (verb(regular)) and line (verb).
6. To place something on the ground.
7. (intransitive) To run aground; to strike the bottom and remain fixed.

   The ship grounded on the bar.

8. To found; to fix or set, as on a foundation, reason, or principle; to furnish a ground for; to fix firmly.

   • being rooted and grounded in love

   • So far from warranting any inference to the existence of a God, would, on the contrary, ground even an argument to his negation.

9. (fine arts) To cover with a ground, as a copper plate for etching, or as paper or other materials with a uniform tint as a preparation for ornament.
10. To improve or focus the mental or emotional state of.

    I ground myself with meditation.

Translations

Etymology 2

Inflected form of grind. See also milled.

Verb

ground

1. simple past tense and past participle of grind

Adjective

ground (not comparable)

1. Crushed, or reduced to small particles.

   Synonym: milled
2. Processed by grinding.
   • 2018, H Glimpel, HJ Lauffer, A Bremstahler, Finishing Tool, In Particular End Milling Cutter, US Patent App. 15/764,739

     An advantage of such a finishing tool is that, after the machining, the workpiece has high surface quality. The surface which is produced appears finely ground to polished by means of this procedure.

Derived terms

• ground beef
• ground pepper
• stoneground

Translations

References

• ground at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• dog run

Middle English

Alternative forms

• grund, grounde

Etymology

From Old English grund, from Proto-Germanic *grunduz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ru?nd/

Noun

ground

1. ground
2. Earth

Declension

Descendants

• English: ground
  • ? Fiji Hindi: garaund
  • ? Maltese: grawnd
• Scots: grund, groond, greund
• Yola: greoune

References

• “gr?und, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.