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Base vs Root - What's the difference?

base | root |

As an acronym base

is b'''uilding'', '''''a'''ntenna-tower'', '''''s'''pan'', '''''e arth .

As a proper noun root is

.

base

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) base, from (etyl) basis, from (etyl) .

Noun

(en noun)
  • Something from which other things extend; a foundation.
  • # A supporting, lower or bottom component of a structure or object.
  • #* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=14 citation , passage=Nanny Broome was looking up at the outer wall. Just under the ceiling there were three lunette windows, heavily barred and blacked out in the normal way by centuries of grime. Their bases were on a level with the pavement outside, a narrow way which was several feet lower than the road behind the house.}}
  • The starting point of a logical deduction or thought; basis.
  • A permanent structure for housing military personnel and material.
  • The place where decisions for an organization are made; headquarters.
  • (cooking, painting, pharmacy) A basic but essential component or ingredient.
  • A substance used as a mordant in dyeing.
  • (Ure)
  • (lb) Foundation: a cosmetic cream to make the face appear uniform.
  • (chemistry) Any of a class of generally water-soluble compounds, having bitter taste, that turn red litmus blue, and react with acids to form salts.
  • Important areas in games and sports.
  • # A safe zone in the children's games of tag and hide-and-go-seek.
  • # (baseball) One of the three places that a runner can stand without being subject to being tagged out.
  • (architecture) The lowermost part of a column, between the shaft and the pedestal or pavement.
  • (biology, biochemistry) A nucleotide's nucleobase in the context of a DNA or RNA biopolymer.
  • (botany) The end of a leaf, petal or similar organ where it is attached to its support.
  • (electronics) The name of the controlling terminal of a bipolar transistor (BJT).
  • (geometry) The lowest side of a in a triangle or other polygon, or the lowest face of a cone, pyramid or other polyhedron laid flat.
  • (heraldiccharge) The lowest third of a shield or escutcheon.
  • (mathematics) A number raised to the power of an exponent.
  • The logarithm to base 2 of 8 is 3.
  • (mathematics) Alternative to radix.
  • (topology) The set of sets from which a topology is generated.
  • (topology) A topological space, looked at in relation to one of its covering spaces, fibrations, or bundles.
  • (cheerleading) A cheerleader who stays on the ground.
  • (linguistics) A morpheme (or morphemes) that serves as a basic foundation on which affixes can be attached.
  • (music)
  • * Dryden
  • The trebles squeak for fear, the bases roar.
  • (military, historical) The smallest kind of cannon.
  • (heraldry) The lower part of the field. See escutcheon.
  • The housing of a horse.
  • (historical, in the plural) A kind of skirt (often of velvet or brocade, but sometimes of mailed armour) which hung from the middle to about the knees, or lower.
  • (obsolete) The lower part of a robe or petticoat.
  • (obsolete) An apron.
  • * Marston
  • bakers in their linen bases
  • A line in a survey which, being accurately determined in length and position, serves as the origin from which to compute the distances and positions of any points or objects connected with it by a system of triangles.
  • (Lyman)
    Synonyms
    * (chemical compound that will neutralize an acid) alkali
    Antonyms
    * (chemical compound that will neutralize an acid) acid * (end of a leaf) apex
    Derived terms
    * air base * base bag * baseball * baseband * baseboard * base box * base-burner * base camp * base censor * base coat * base color/base colour * base course * base exchange * base hospital * baseless * baselevel * baseline * basely * base load * baseman * basement * base molding/base moulding * base out * base over apex * baseperson * baseplate * base-player * base-playing * base point * base port * base radio * base rate * base ring * baserunner/base runner * base-running/baserunning * base ship * base shoot * base squadron * base station * base-stealer * base-stealing * base substitution * base table * base unit * base wallah * basewoman * counterbase * cover one's bases * database * debase * first base * freebase * home base * knowledge base * leuco-base * make first base * moonbase * off base * on base * power base * prisoner's base, prisoners' base * second base * subbase * surbase * third base * wheelbase

    Verb

    (bas)
  • To give as its foundation or starting point; to lay the foundation of.
  • *
  • Firstly, I continue to base most species treatments on personally collected material, rather than on herbarium plants.
  • To be located (at a particular place).
  • Derived terms
    * -based * base on

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) bas, from .

    Adjective

    (en-adj)
  • (obsolete) Low in height; short.
  • base shrubs
    (Shakespeare)
  • Low in place or position.
  • (Shakespeare)
  • (obsolete) Of low value or degree.
  • * , II.3:
  • If thou livest in paine and sorrow, thy base courage is the cause of it, To die there wanteth but will.
  • (archaic) Of low social standing or rank; vulgar, common.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • a pleasant and base swain
  • Morally reprehensible, immoral; cowardly.
  • * Robynson (More's Utopia)
  • a cruel act of a base and a cowardish mind
  • * Milton
  • base ingratitude
  • * {{quote-book, year=1905, author=
  • , title= , chapter=1 citation , passage=“Mrs. Yule's chagrin and horror at what she called her son's base ingratitude knew no bounds ; at first it was even thought that she would never get over it.
  • Inferior; unworthy, of poor quality.
  • Designating those metals which are not classed as (precious) or (noble).
  • Alloyed with inferior metal; debased.
  • base''' coin;  '''base bullion
  • (obsolete) Of illegitimate birth; bastard.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Why bastard? wherefore base ?
  • Not classical or correct.
  • base Latin
    (Fuller)
  • the base tone of a violin
  • (legal) Not held by honourable service.
  • A base''' estate is one held by services not honourable, or held by villenage. Such a tenure is called '''base''', or low, and the tenant is a '''base tenant.
    Usage notes
    * Said of fellows, motives, occupations, etc.
    Synonyms
    * bad, vile, malicious, destructive, reprehensible, knavish, evil
    Antonyms
    * likeable * desirable * admirable * noble
    Derived terms
    * base-born * base-bred * base coin * base estate * base fee * basely * base metal * base-minded * baseness * base-spirited * base tenant * base tenure * base-witted

    Etymology 3

    Probably a specific use of Etymology 1, above; perhaps also a development of the plural of (bar).

    Noun

    (-)
  • * Shakespeare
  • to run the country base
  • * 1596 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , V.8:
  • So ran they all, as they had bene at bace , / They being chased that did others chase.

    Etymology 4

    Variant forms.

    Acronym

    (Acronym) (head)
  • Derived terms
    * base jumper * base jumping

    See also

    * (wikipedia "base") *

    Anagrams

    * * 1000 English basic words ----

    root

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) ; cognate with wort and radix.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The part of a plant, generally underground, that absorbs water and nutrients.
  • This tree's roots can go as deep as twenty metres underground.
  • 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.
  • The part of a tooth extending into the bone holding the tooth in place.
  • Root damage is a common problem of overbrushing.
  • The part of a hair under the skin that holds the hair in place.
  • The root is the only part of the hair that is alive.
  • The part of a hair near the skin that has not been dyed, permed, or otherwise treated.
  • He dyed his hair black last month, so the grey roots can be seen.
  • The primary source; origin.
  • The love of money is the root of all evil.
  • * John Locke
  • They were the roots out of which sprang two distinct people.
  • (arithmetic) Of a number or expression, a number which, when raised to a specified power, yields the specified number or expression.
  • The cube root of 27 is 3.
  • (arithmetic) A square root (understood if no power is specified; in which case, “the root of” is often abbreviated to “root”).
  • Multiply by root 2.
  • (analysis) A zero (of a function).
  • (graph theory, computing) The single node of a tree that has no parent.
  • (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.
  • (philology) A word from which another word or words are derived.
  • (music) The fundamental tone of any chord; the tone from whose harmonics, or overtones, a chord is composed.
  • (Busby)
  • The lowest place, position, or part.
  • * Milton
  • deep to the roots of hell
  • * Southey
  • the roots of the mountains
  • (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.
  • (computing) The person who manages accounts on a UNIX system.
  • (computing) The highest directory of a directory structure which may contain both files and subdirectories. (rfex)
  • Synonyms
    * (source) basis, origin, source * (zero of a function) zero * (word from which another is derived) etymon * superuser (), root account, root user
    Antonyms
    * (zero of a function) pole
    Holonyms
    * (zero of a function) kernel
    Derived terms
    * cube root * functional root * put down roots * root canal * root cause * rootkit * roots * roots music * rootsy * square root * strictly roots * take root * taproot * root gap

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (computing, slang, transitive) To break into a computer system and obtain root access.
  • We rooted his box and planted a virus on it.
  • To fix the root; to enter the earth, as roots; to take root and begin to grow.
  • * Mortimer
  • In deep grounds the weeds root deeper.
  • * '>citation
  • To be firmly fixed; to be established.
  • * Bishop Fell
  • If any irregularity chanced to intervene and to cause misapprehensions, he gave them not leave to root and fasten by concealment.

    See also

    * (linguistics) stem

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) . Cognate with rodent. Cognate with Dutch wroeten.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To turn up or dig with the snout.
  • A pig roots the earth for truffles.
  • (by extension) To seek favour or advancement by low arts or grovelling servility; to fawn.
  • To rummage, to search as if by digging in soil.
  • rooting about in a junk-filled drawer
  • To root out; to abolish.
  • * Shakespeare
  • I will go root away the noisome weeds.
  • * Bible, Deuteronomy xxix. 28
  • The Lord rooted them out of their land and cast them into another land.
  • (Australia, New Zealand, vulgar, slang) To have sexual intercourse.
  • Usage notes
    * The Australian/New Zealand sexual sense is somewhat milder than fuck but still quite coarse, 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'' is only the direct verbal sense, not an all-purpose intensive like ''fucking .
    Synonyms
    * (rummage) dig out, root out, rummage * (have sexual intercourse) screw, bang, drill (US), shag (British) - See also
    Derived terms
    * root about * rooted * root out * root up

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (Australia, New Zealand, vulgar, slang) An act of sexual intercourse.
  • Fancy a root ?
  • (Australia, New Zealand, vulgar, slang) A sexual partner.
  • 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.
    Synonyms
    * (act of sexual intercourse) screw (qualifier), shag (UK); see also * (sexual partner) screw (US)

    Etymology 3

    Possibly an alteration of , influenced by hoot

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (intransitive, with for, US) To cheer to show support for.
  • * 1908 ,
  • Let me root', '''root''', ' root for the home team,
  • (US) To hope for the success of. Rendered as 'root for'.
  • I'm rooting for you, don't let me down!
    Synonyms
    * (cheer) barrack (qualifier), cheer on

    Anagrams

    * ----