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superficies
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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See also: superfícies
English
Etymology
Borrowing from Latin superficiēs (“top, surface”), from super- (“above, over”) + faciēs (“form, configuration, shape”). Doublet of surface.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˌsuː.pəˈfɪʃ.i.iːz/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˌsu.pɚˈfɪˌʃiz/, /ˌsu.pɚˈfɪʃ.iˌiz/
Audio (US): (file)
Noun
superficies (plural superficies)
- (geometry) A two-dimensional magnitude that has length and breadth; especially such a surface that forms the boundary of a solid.
- The area of a two-dimensional surface.
- The visible, external surface of a body.
- 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author Permitted to See the Grand Academy of Lagado. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part III (A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Glubbdubdribb, Luggnagg, and Japan), page 72:
- The Superficies was compoſed of ſeveral bits of Wood, about the bigneſs of a Dye, but ſome larger than others.
- The surface (of something immaterial, especially of the mind or soul).
- 1819, Washington Irving, The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Rural Life in England:
- An immense metropolis, like London, is calculated to make men selfish and uninteresting. … They present but the cold superficies of character—its rich and genial qualities have no time to be warmed into a flow.
- (law) A building intimately associated with the land on which it is built.
Related terms
References
- John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “superficies”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.
- “superficies”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
- “superficies”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
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Asturian
Noun
superficies
- plural of superficie
French
Noun
superficies f
- plural of superficie
Interlingua
Noun
superficies
- plural of superficie
Latin
Etymology
From super- (“above, over”) + faciēs (“form, configuration, shape”), with the change in vowel likely influenced by -fex.
Pronunciation
- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): [sʊ.pɛrˈfɪ.ki.eːs]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): [su.perˈfiː.t͡ʃi.es]
Noun
superficiēs f (genitive superficiēī); fifth declension
- the top, surface (upper side of a thing)
- (law) a building (as opposed to the land on which it is built)
- (geometry) a superficies
Inflection
Fifth-declension noun.
Derived terms
- superficiālis
- superficiārius
- superficium
Descendants
Descendants
- → English: superficies
- → French: surface, superficie (calque)
- → German: Oberfläche (calque) (likely)
- → Dutch: oppervlakte (calque) (likely)
- → Italian: superficie
- → Piedmontese: superfice
References
- “superficies”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “superficies”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- "superficies", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
- “superficies”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- “superficies”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
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Spanish
Noun
superficies f pl
- plural of superficie
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