underground
English edit
Etymology edit
From Middle English undergrounde (adverb), equivalent to under + ground. Compare Dutch ondergrond, ondergronds, German Untergrund, Danish undergrunds.
Pronunciation edit
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˌʌndəˈɡɹaʊnd/, (especially for the noun) /ˈʌndəɡɹaʊnd/
Audio (Southern England) (file)
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˌʌndɚˈɡɹaʊnd/, (especially for the noun) /ˈʌndɚɡɹaʊnd/
- Rhymes: -aʊnd
- Hyphenation: un‧der‧ground
Adjective edit
underground (comparative more underground, superlative most underground)
- (not comparable) Below the ground; below the surface of the Earth.
- Synonyms: subterranean, hypogean
- There is an underground tunnel that takes you across the river.
- 2014 June 14, “It's a gas”, in The Economist[1], volume 411, number 8891:
- One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains. Isolating a city’s effluent and shipping it away in underground sewers has probably saved more lives than any medical procedure except vaccination.
- (figurative) Hidden, furtive, secretive.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:hidden, Thesaurus:covert
- These criminals operate through an underground network.
- (of music, art etc.) Outside the mainstream, especially unofficial and hidden from the authorities.
- Synonyms: unconventional, alternative
- Antonym: mainstream
- underground music
- 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, page 27:
- ‘ […] he wrote to me last week telling me about an incredible bitch of a row blazing there on account of someone having been and gone and produced an unofficial magazine called Raddled, full of obscene libellous Oz-like filth. And what I though, what Sammy and I thought, was—why not?’ ‘Why not what?’ said Tom. ‘Why not do the same thing here?’ ‘You mean an underground magazine?’ ‘Yup.’
- 2010 March 20, James Campbell, “Barry Miles: 'I think of the 60s as a supermarket of ideas. We were looking for new ways to live'”, in The Guardian[2]:
- "In many ways, it showed there was no longer an underground, as such. This proved that there was no longer one society with everyone agreeing how to live . . . The underground had officially come above ground, and consequently no longer existed."
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
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Adverb edit
underground (comparative more underground, superlative most underground)
- Below the ground.
- Secretly.
- Synonyms: clandestinely, in secret, on the quiet
Translations edit
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Noun edit
underground (plural undergrounds)
- (geography) Regions beneath the surface of the earth, both natural (eg. caves) and man-made (eg. mines).
- (chiefly Britain) Synonym of subway: a railway that is under the ground.
- Synonym: underground railway
- London Underground
- (with definite article) A movement or organisation of people who resist political convention.
- Synonym: resistance
- the French underground during World War II
- 1942, Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, Howard Koch, Casablanca, spoken by Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman):
- Victor, please, don't go to the underground meeting tonight.
- (with definite article) A movement or organisation of people who resist artistic convention.
- Synonyms: avant-garde, counterculture
Translations edit
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Verb edit
underground (third-person singular simple present undergrounds, present participle undergrounding, simple past and past participle undergrounded)
- To route electricity distribution cables underground.
- 1962, David Pesonen, “Battles Over Energy”, in Carolyn Merchant, editor, Green Versus Gold: Sources in California's Environmental History[3], Island Press, published 1998, →ISBN, page 325:
- One is to underground where no other alternative will work, and this method should be used universally in urban regions as it now is in “downtown” sections.
- 2004, Don L. Ivey, C. Paul Scott, “Solutions”, in Transportation Research Board Committee on Utilities, editor, Utilities and Roadside Safety[4], State of the Art Report 9, Transportation Research Board, →ISBN, page 9:
- Also, undergrounding may not eliminate the potential for crashes with other roadside objects, such as trees, walls, buildings, and so forth. [...] When looking at the fesibility of undergrounding utilities, the complete roadside area and nearby adjacent properties should be evaluated for potential roadside obstructions or hazards.
- 2006, Janes Northcote-Green, Robert Wilson, “Design, Construction and Operation of Distribution Systems, MV Networks”, in Control and Automation of Electrical Power Distribution Systems[5], CRC Press, →ISBN, page 110:
- The utility now wants the network to be undergrounded in the urban areas, which would mean substations with 33 kV distribution swtichgear.
Translations edit
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See also edit
Finnish edit
Etymology edit
Unadapted borrowing from English underground.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
underground
- underground (culture)
Declension edit
Inflection of underground (Kotus type 5/risti, no gradation) | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
nominative | underground | undergroundit | ||
genitive | undergroundin | undergroundien | ||
partitive | undergroundia | undergroundeja | ||
illative | undergroundiin | undergroundeihin | ||
singular | plural | |||
nominative | underground | undergroundit | ||
accusative | nom. | underground | undergroundit | |
gen. | undergroundin | |||
genitive | undergroundin | undergroundien | ||
partitive | undergroundia | undergroundeja | ||
inessive | undergroundissa | undergroundeissa | ||
elative | undergroundista | undergroundeista | ||
illative | undergroundiin | undergroundeihin | ||
adessive | undergroundilla | undergroundeilla | ||
ablative | undergroundilta | undergroundeilta | ||
allative | undergroundille | undergroundeille | ||
essive | undergroundina | undergroundeina | ||
translative | undergroundiksi | undergroundeiksi | ||
abessive | undergrounditta | undergroundeitta | ||
instructive | — | undergroundein | ||
comitative | See the possessive forms below. |
Compounds edit
Further reading edit
- “underground”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish] (online dictionary, continuously updated, in Finnish), Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-04
French edit
Etymology edit
Borrowed from English underground.
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
underground (invariable)
- underground (outside the mainstream)
Noun edit
underground m (uncountable)
- (singular only) the underground (people who resist artistic convention)
Further reading edit
- “underground”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Italian edit
Etymology edit
Borrowed from English underground.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
- the underground (people who resist artistic convention)
References edit
- ^ underground in Luciano Canepari, Dizionario di Pronuncia Italiana (DiPI)
Romanian edit
Etymology edit
Unadapted borrowing from English underground.
Adjective edit
underground m or f or n (indeclinable)
Declension edit
singular | plural | ||||||
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masculine | neuter | feminine | masculine | neuter | feminine | ||
nominative/ accusative |
indefinite | underground | underground | underground | underground | ||
definite | — | — | — | — | |||
genitive/ dative |
indefinite | underground | underground | underground | underground | ||
definite | — | — | — | — |
Spanish edit
Etymology edit
Unadapted borrowing from English underground.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
underground m (plural undergrounds)
- underground (movement)
Usage notes edit
According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.
Further reading edit
- “underground”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014