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Burden vs Overburden - What's the difference?

burden | overburden |

As nouns the difference between burden and overburden

is that burden is while overburden is (geology) the rock and subsoil that lies above a mineral deposit such as a coal seam.

As a verb overburden is

to overload or overtax.

burden

English

(wikipedia burden)

Etymology 1

From (etyl) burden, birden, burthen, birthen, byrthen, from (etyl) byrden, .

Alternative forms

* burthen (archaic)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A heavy load.
  • * 1898 , , (Moonfleet) Chapter 4
    • There were four or five men in the vault already, and I could hear more coming down the passage, and guessed from their heavy footsteps that they were carrying burdens .
  • A responsibility, onus.
  • A cause of worry; that which is grievous, wearisome, or oppressive.
  • * Jonathan Swift
    • Deaf, giddy, helpless, left alone, / To all my friends a burden grown.
  • The capacity of a vessel, or the weight of cargo that she will carry.
    • a ship of a hundred tons burden
  • (mining) The tops or heads of stream-work which lie over the stream of tin.
  • (metalworking) The proportion of ore and flux to fuel, in the charge of a blast furnace.
    • (Raymond)
  • A fixed quantity of certain commodities.
    • A burden of gad steel is 120 pounds.
  • (obsolete, rare) A birth.
    • That bore thee at a burden two fair sons

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To encumber with a burden (in any of the noun senses of the word ).
    • to burden a nation with taxes
  • * Bible, 2 Corinthians viii. 13
    • I mean not that other men be eased, and ye burdened .
  • * Shakespeare
    • My burdened heart would break.
  • To impose, as a load or burden; to lay or place as a burden (something heavy or objectionable).
  • * Coleridge
    • It is absurd to burden this act on Cromwell.
    Derived terms
    * burdensome * beast of burden

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) bordon. See bourdon.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (music) A phrase or theme that recurs at the end of each verse in a folk song or ballad.
  • * 1610 , , act 1 scene 2
    • [...] Foot it featly here and there; / And, sweet sprites, the burden bear.
  • * 1846 ,
    • As commonly used, the refrain, or burden , not only is limited to lyric verse, but depends for its impression upon the force of monotone - both in sound and thought.
  • The drone of a bagpipe.
    • (Ruddiman)
  • (obsolete) Theme, core idea.

    • Anagrams

    *

    overburden

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To overload or overtax

    • Noun

    (en noun)
  • (geology) The rock and subsoil that lies above a mineral deposit such as a coal seam.
  • *2004 , (Richard Fortey), The Earth , Folio Society 2011, p. 163:
  • *:Such rocks have been changed by baking in a terrestrial pressure-cooker. Then they have been disinterred: kilometres of overburden must have been removed.
  • (archaeology) A sterile stratum that lies above the stratum being investigated

    • References

    Wikipedia