base

English has two words spelled base: the noun “foundation, bottom”, from Greek through Latin, and the adjective “low, ignoble”, from Late Latin bassus.^[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

• IPA: /beɪs/^[4]

base¹ foundation

Etymology

The foundation is inherited from Middle English bas, borrowed from Old French base (“pedestal, foundation”),^[3][5][2] perhaps confused with the Old French adjective bas “low”,^[3] and directly borrowed from Latin basis (“foundation”),^[6][5][7] from Ancient Greek βάσις (básis, “a step; that on which one stands, a pedestal”),^[6][8] from βαίνω (baínō, “I go, step”),^[6][9][8] from Proto-Indo-European *gwa- (“to go, come”).^[6][2] It is a doublet of basis.^[3] The verb and adjective are from the noun.^[6][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The foundation of a building, the pedestal of a statue, the bottom of something as its support: about 1300^[6] or before 1300.^[3] The OED's first quotation is from about 1325.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The figurative “fundamental principle, groundwork” is from about 1500.^[10] In alchemy a base was an alloy of base metals in the late 15th century,^[6] and the chemical compound that unites with an acid to form a salt is from 1810, from a sense introduced in French in 1754 by the chemist Guillaume-François Rouelle.^[6] In games, a safe spot is suggested from the mid-15th century, the starting point is from the 1690s, and the destination of a runner from 1812.^[6] The military base, “secure ground from which operations proceed”, is from 1860.^[6] The verb meant “to make a foundation for” in the 1580s,^[6][3] 1587 in Barnhart and Merriam-Webster,^[3][9] and “to place an argument upon a foundation” by 1841.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – a foundation, pedestal.^[6]
• c. 1500 – a fundamental principle.^[10]
• 1587 – verb, to found.^[3][9]
• 1690s – a starting point in sport.^[6]
• 1810 – a chemical base.^[6]
• 1812 – a runner's destination.^[6]
• 1841 – to base an argument.^[6]
• 1860 – a military base.^[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The lowest part, on which something rests; a foundation.
2. A basic principle or underlying element; a basis.
3. A centre of operations, especially a military one.
4. (baseball) Any of the four corners of the infield.
5. (chemistry) A substance that reacts with an acid to form a salt.
6. (mathematics) The number on which a system of numbers is built.

Verb

1. To use as a foundation or starting point: based on fact.
2. To station at a base.

Adjective

1. Forming a base.

Word family

• basal
• basic
• baseline
• baseball
• basement
• database
• airbase

base² low, ignoble

Etymology

The adjective is inherited from Middle English bas (“low”),^[3][11] borrowed from Old French bas (“low, lowly, mean”),^[6][3][2] from Medieval Latin bassus (“low”), Late Latin bassus “thick, fat, stumpy”,^[3][8][9] found in classical Latin only as a personal name.^[6][5][7] Its origin is uncertain:^[8] Etymonline suggests it may be Oscan or Celtic, or related to Greek βαθύς (bathús, “deep”).^[6] The same Latin word gave abase, bass the low voice, and bassoon.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

“Low, of little height”: the late 14th century,^[6] about 1390.^[3] The spelling bass is found as a separate formation before 1393, in Gower's Confessio Amantis.^[3]

Semantic evolution

“Low on the social scale” is from the late 15th century, and “low on the moral scale” by the 1530s.^[6] “Befitting an inferior person, unworthy” is from the 1590s.^[6] Base metals, worthless as opposed to noble or precious metals, are from about 1600.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1390 – low, of little height.^[3]
• late 15th century – of low social rank.^[6]
• 1530s – morally low.^[6]
• 1590s – unworthy.^[6]
• c. 1600 – base metals.^[6]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Without moral principle; contemptible or mean-spirited.
2. Inferior in quality or value: base metals.
3. (archaic) Of low birth or rank.
4. (archaic) Low, short.

Word family

• basely
• baseness
• abase
• debase
• base-born

Related words

• basis
• bass
• bassoon
• acrobat
• basso

Usage notes

A third base, in prisoners' base, a chasing game, is probably an alteration of bars, and the game is from about 1440.^[5][10]

References

1. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster