different between surface vs undersoil

English

Etymology

From French surface.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?s??f?s/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?s??f?s/

Noun

surface (plural surfaces)

1. The overside or up-side of a flat object such as a table, or of a liquid.
2. The outside hull of a tangible object.
3. (figuratively) Outward or external appearance.
   • “A tight little craft,” was Austin’s invariable comment on the matron; and she looked it, always trim and trig and smooth of surface like a converted yacht cleared for action. ¶ Near her wandered her husband, orientally bland, invariably affable, […].

4. (mathematics, geometry) The locus of an equation (especially one with exactly two degrees of freedom) in a more-than-two-dimensional space.
5. (fortification) That part of the side which is terminated by the flank prolonged, and the angle of the nearest bastion.

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

Synonyms

• overside
• superfice (archaic)

Derived terms

Related terms

• surficial

Translations

Verb

surface (third-person singular simple present surfaces, present participle surfacing, simple past and past participle surfaced)

1. (transitive) To provide something with a surface.
2. (transitive) To apply a surface to something.
3. (intransitive) To rise to the surface.
4. (transitive) To bring to the surface.
   • 2007, Patrick Valentine, The Sage of Aquarius (page 182)

     Sage went immediately to work; Damien surfaced the submarine and readied the group to meet outside the hatch.

5. (intransitive) To come out of hiding.
6. (intransitive) For information or facts to become known.
7. (transitive) To make information or facts known.
8. (intransitive) To work a mine near the surface.
9. (intransitive) To appear or be found.

Translations

French

Etymology

sur- +? face, calque of Latin superficies.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sy?.fas/
• Homophones: surfaces, surfacent

Noun

surface f (plural surfaces)

1. surface

Derived terms

Further reading

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

English

Etymology

under- +? soil

Noun

undersoil (plural undersoils)

1. (geology) The soil underneath the surface / topsoil and above the bedrock.
   • 1845, Charles Darwin, Journal of Researches into the Natural History and Geology of the Countries Visited during the Voyage of the H.M.S. Beagle Round the World, 2nd edition, London: John Murray, Chapter , p. 249,^[1]

     It is a singular fact, that on the two great continents in the northern hemisphere […] we have the zone of perpetually frozen under-soil in a low latitude […]

   • 1916, D. H. Lawrence, “Discipline” in Amores, London: Duckworth, p. 37,^[2]

     But comfort me, my love, now the fires are low,

     Now I am broken to earth like a winter destroyed, and all

     Myself but a knowledge of roots, of roots in the dark that throw

     A net on the undersoil, which lies passive beneath their thrall.

   • 1945, C. S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength, London: The Bodley Head, 1965, Part Two, Chapter 5, p. 166,^[3]

     The childish levels, the undersoil of the mind, had been turned up. She wanted to be with Nice people, away from Nasty people—that nursery distinction seeming at the moment more important than any later categories of Good and Bad or Friend and Enemy.

   • 1960, Muriel Spark, The Ballad of Peckham Rye, London: Macmillan, Chapter 7,

     Dougal pointed out to his policemen friends the evidence of the Thames silt in the under-soil. ‘One time,’ he said, ‘the Thames was five miles wide, and it covered all Peckham.’

Anagrams

• underoils