basementn.
/ˈbeɪsm(ə)nt/, U.S. /ˈbeɪsm(ə)nt/ I. Senses relating to base n.1
1. Architecture and Building.
a. The distinct lowest part of a fixed structure.
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the world > space > relative position > low position > [noun] > lowest position > bottom or lowest part
bottomeOE
foota1200
lowestc1225
roota1382
tailc1390
founcea1400
basement1610
sole1615
fund1636
foot piece1657
footing1659
underneath1676
bottom side1683
ass1700
doup1710
keel1726
1610 S. Daniel Tethys Festival in Order & Solemnitie Creation Prince Henrie sig. Fv A triangular basement formed of scrowles & leaues.
1684 C. Wren in 13th Vol. Wren Society (1936) 188 Ffor working & Setting 125 foot of great Bacement..at 15d p foot Superficiall... Ffor working & setting 52 foot running of the little Bacement betweene the Pilaster outside, of Portland Stone at 2s 6d p. foot running.
1730 A. Gordon tr. F. S. Maffei Compl. Hist. Anc. Amphitheatres i. vii. 75 In Verona we have certain Evidences, that the Stones of the ruin'd Part of the Amphitheatre, are still in the Walls of the old Castle, in the Basement of the Wall which surrounds the Palace of the Scaligers.
1793 J. Smeaton Narr. Edystone Lighthouse (ed. 2) Cont. 7 Establishing a solid Basement of Wood.
1828 R. Burgess Descr. Circus on Via Appia 111 Basement of the Column sustaining the Statue of Victory.
1867 J. Fergusson Hist. Archit. II. vii. ii. 754 Perhaps their most successful efforts in this direction were when they combined a solid basement of masonry with a light superstructure of wood, as in the Winter Palace at Pekin.
1904 E. Wharton in Century Mag. Apr. 868/2 These terraces are adorned with two curious turrets, resting on baroque basements and crowned by swallow-tailed crenelations.
1931 J. Marshall Mohenjo-daro & Indus Civilization I. i. 6 That this was so is shown by the pains which the builders of Mahenjo-daro have taken to provide their edifices with preternaturally solid basements and to raise them aloft on artificial terraces which time and again were heightened in order to place them out of reach of the floods.
2009 F. T. Barbieri & K. Jans-Duffy Seneca Falls i. 13 The new building boasted a basement of stone and a superstructure of wood on Bayard Street.
b. spec. The lowest storey of a building, below the first main storey, esp. when sunk partially or wholly below the general ground level.bargain, English, non-basement, etc.: see at the first element.
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society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > a building > parts of building > [noun] > floor or storey > below ground level
basement1730
sunk storey1769
below stairs1771
sunken storey1791
1730 A. Gordon tr. F. S. Maffei Compl. Hist. Anc. Amphitheatres 389 There is a small Basement..under the lower Pilasters.
1794 J. Plaw Rural Archit. (new ed.) 6 The Kitchen and Part of the Offices are detached, and sunk, as the Basement.
1823 W. Scott in J. G. Lockhart Mem. Life Scott (1839) VII. 204 The under or sunk story—basement the learned call it.
1854 W. M. Thackeray Newcomes I. xiv. 140 The household from above and from below; the maids and footmen from the basement; the nurses, children, and governesses from the attics; all poured into the room at the sound of a certain bell.
1877 Pop. Sci. Monthly Feb. 509/1 On the fourth floor is the Council's room, and in the basement are the offices for the clerical force.
1905 Proc. Soc. Antiquaries Scotl. 4th Ser. 3 153 The basement is isolated from the upper storey, and the centre passage through the archway has no opening on either side.
1946 A. E. Smith in J. H. Cohen They builded better than they Knew ii. xi. 109 On the west side of Number Six was a barber shop in the basement.
1994 J. Harris Palladian Revival iii. 117 There is no evidence as to how the basement or under-storey was to be used.
2008 J. C. May & C. L. May Jeff May's Healthy Home Tips i. i. 12 Mold grows on possessions stored in the basement.
2. figurative. An underlying or essential element of something complex.
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the world > existence and causation > causation > basis or foundation > [noun]
ground1340
root1340
substancec1384
fundament1395
foundationc1400
groundment?a1412
footing1440
anvila1450
bottom ground1557
groundwork1557
foot1559
platform1568
subsistence1586
subject matter1600
ground-colour1614
basisa1616
substratum1631
basement1637
bottoma1639
fonda1650
fibre1656
fund1671
fundamen1677
substruction1765
starting ground1802
fundus1839
1637 R. Knevet Funerall Elegies sig. C2v Foure Humours are the Elements, and these The basement doe compose of this celestiall piece.
1818 H. Hallam View Europe Middle Ages I. ii. 225 That Great Charter, the basement at least, if not the foundation, of our free constitution.
1876 T. R. Birks Mod. Physical Fatalism x. 228 It [sc. Newton's Law of Gravitation] seems to compel the thoughtful mind, even in this lowest basement of physics, to look beyond second causes.
1961 R. Atkins Phenomena 5 From the basement of The primordial welled the evermore Roared ocean.
1996 A. Alvarez Night iv. 129 In Freud's upstairs-downstairs geography of the mind, these primitive or infantile wishes are confined to the basement of the unconscious, the Id, and are never allowed to go into the civilised drawing-room where the conscious ego holds court.
2006 E. Bagnara & G. C. Smith Theories & Pract. in Interaction Design v. xi. 175 There is a ‘social contract’ at the basement of society.
3. Geology. The lowest (and hence oldest) rock formation of a region, feature, etc.; esp. the platform of consolidated igneous and metamorphic rocks underlying a set of sedimentary deposits.
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1810 J. Smith Syst. Mod. Geogr. I. 404 From the uniformity of this circumstance, during the whole course of the chain, from Hert Fiall to Colebrooke Dale,..it may reasonably be inferred that the basement of the mountains is nearly upon a level.
1843 J. E. Portlock Rep. Geol. Londonderry 97 The..augitic rock which forms the basement of the promontory.
1906 Science 4 May 697/2 Erosion by the river has exposed a small part of the pre-Cambrian basement underneath the Carboniferous beds.
1969 G. M. Bennison & A. E. Wright Geol. Hist. Brit. Isles iii. 46 The Lewisian also forms the basement to the Moinian Series.
2000 J. N. Wilford Mapmakers (2002) xvii. 310 Igneous ‘plutons’ that had intruded..into the already formed rocks that make up most of the crystalline basement in that area.
4. Sport (originally Baseball). The lowest (or a low) position in the rankings of a league or other grouping. Frequently attributive. Cf. cellar n.1 2c.
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1907 Evening Chron. (Spokane, Washington) 14 June 5/3 The Vancouver magnates have tired of having the team in the basement, and they have now made a move that ought to make a winner of the team.
1958 Chicago Tribune 4 Jan. ii. 1/1 The Minneapolis Lakers, basement team in the National Basketball association's western division,..had their hands full beating the fabled Harlem Globe Trotters.
1988 Western Mail 8 Oct. (Gwent ed.) 22/2 Cardiff City manager Frank Burrows wants his team to take a tougher line to help them climb out of the Third Division basement.
2001 World Soccer Mar. 14/2 Marc Grosjean parted company with Belgian League basement club La Louviere by mutual consent.
II. Senses relating to base v.3
5. The action of basing one thing on another; the state or fact of being based on something. Now rare.
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the world > existence and causation > causation > basis or foundation > [noun] > state of being based or settled
radicationa1500
rootfastness1526
rootinga1620
moring1625
rootedness1625
fixture1809
rootage1823
basement1838
1838 G. S. Faber Inq. Hist. & Theol. Anc. Vallenses & Albigenses iv. iv. 579 Evinced by its actual basement upon the unhallowed principle, that nations, as such, ought, etc.
1841 Odd Fellows' Mag. Jan. 226 Its [sc. The Union Order of Odd Felllows'] adaptation to intellectual acquirement, its basement upon sound principles of governance,—all these points are, more or less, involved in the consideration of this question.
1996 P. Suiming in G. Hershatter et al. Remapping China 296 The basement of some traditional ethics upon sexual behavior pattern was broken.
Compounds
C1.
a. attributive. In the senses ‘forming or situated in a basement’, as basement apartment, basement room, etc.; ‘relating to a basement’, as basement stairs, basement wall, etc.
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1767 J. Woolfe Vitruvius Britannicus IV. 7/1 The next plate, which is a single one, is the section from north to south, and displays the hall below on the basement floor, and the hall and saloon on the principal floor.
1800 Gentleman's Mag. Mar. 215/1 Below them, our view becomes shocked with the preposterous modern erections at the basement part of the South end.
1822 P. Stansbury Pedestrian Tour 2,300 Miles in N. Amer. ii. 51 A convenient footwalk leads over the stream, to Low's Springs, consisting of numerous spouts, contained under the basement-room of an hotel.
1840 G. Poulson Hist. & Antiq. Seigniory of Holderness II. 168 A neat basement moulding runs round the whole.
1864 C. Dickens Our Mutual Friend (1865) I. i. iv. 26 Down..stairs to a little basement front room.
1909 M. Glass Potash & Perlmutter v. 84 I seen the house, Abe, six stories and basement stores, and you couldn't get another tenant into it with a shoehorn.
1932 Pop. Mech. Oct. 648/2 Figs. 7, 8 and 9 show the progressive steps in building a basement game room.
1944 E. Lucas in R. Greenhalgh Pract. Builder ii. 101 Vertical damp-proof courses are necessary in basement walls.
1955 Bull. Atomic Scientists Feb. 48/1 A prudent man, he has prepared a simple basement shelter to which he takes his family and food and water to last for two days.
1974 S. Terkel Working vii. 430 He lives by himself in a tidily kept basement apartment.
1992 Old-house Jrnl. May 32/1 Tons of coal were poured through the basement window to lie in small black mountains until it was hauled across the room.
2009 D. A. Ladley Haunted Naperville ii. 61 He closed himself in the storage closet under the basement stairs, detached the gas dryer's exhaust tube, placed a bag over his head, and quietly died of carbon monoxide poisoning.
b.
basement door n.
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1837 N.-Y. Mirror 25 Mar. 311/3 Three arches, under one of which carriages pass to the basement door.
1891 T. De W. Talmage Night Scenes City Life v. 88 At my basement door we average between fifty and one hundred calls every day for help.
1910 ‘O. Henry’ Tommy's Burglar in Whirligigs 215 Felicia, the maid, left by the basement door with the policeman to get a raspberry phosphate around the corner.
2002 S. Waters Fingersmith v. 137 The rain fell all that night. It made rivers of water that ran beneath the basement doors, into the kitchen, the still-room and the pantries.
basement kitchen n.
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1829 Vermont Chron. 13 Mar. 41/5 (advt.) The house consists of three stories, and a basement kitchen—is large and convenient for a boarding house or tavern.
1840 J. Buel in J. Armstrong & J. Buel Treat. Agric. (new ed.) xv. 208 (note) Placed in a tub with earth in autumn, and set in a cellar or basement kitchen, and merely watered, the roots [sc. of rhubarb] will send forth an abundance of stalks, which may be used early in March.
1917 T. S. Eliot Prufrock & Other Observ. 31 They are rattling breakfast plates in basement kitchens.
1966 Listener 3 Feb. 176/2 A despondent servant-girl from the country in each basement kitchen.
2005 Independent 19 Jan. (Property section) 5/1 The roof was leaking, the wiring was deadly, and the basement kitchen was manky and damp.
basement storey n.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > dwelling place or abode > a dwelling > a house > types of house > [noun] > flat or apartment
mansion?c1400
tenement1593
apartmenta1645
basement storey1743
flat1824
house1885
basement flat1894
apt.1901
home unit1929
triplex1932
housing unit1935
1743 J. Wood Descr. Exchange of Bristol 18 The Coffee-Room was built thirty-six Feet long, thirty Feet broad and twelve Feet and six Inches high, which was all the Altitude the Basement Story of the Building would admit of.
1766 J. Entick Surv. London in New Hist. London IV. 360 The bassment story is very massy.
1805 R. Heber Memo in A. Heber Life R. Heber (1830) I. iv. 117 The basement story and cellars, even of the most magnificent houses, are always let for shops.
1899 E. Œ. Somerville & ‘M. Ross’ Some Experiences Irish R.M. 252 Dr. Fahy's basement storey, with the rookery of paying guests asleep above.
1938 Minnesota: State Guide (Federal Writers' Project) ii. 183 The well-proportioned façade of white Vermont marble has a rusticated basement story surmounted by a story of large windows set between pilasters.
2005 P. S. Fry Castles (2008) 127/1 The principal feature is a great tower of the 15th century; the basement storey is vaulted.
C2. figurative. In the sense ‘fundamental’, as basement principle, etc.
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1829 I. Taylor Nat. Hist. Enthusiasm iii. 61 This belief constitutes the basement-principle of all religion.
1868 Virginia Univ. Mag. Nov. & Dec. 78 As important, however, as the basement principles in any system of philosophy confessedly are, these alone are not sufficient to give strength and stability to the superstructure.
1904 Jrnl. Geol. (Chicago) 12 531 The new conception of the mode of origin of the earth demands consideration, not only as affecting a large group of basement principles of interest to the physiographer, but with the view of testing the planetesimal hypothesis itself by physiographic standards.
1975 Lesbian Reader 229 What makes the confusion hard to dispel is the fact that whatever beliefs about sexuality you hold, there is the basement belief underneath them that sexuality is the expression..of your creature-hood.
C3. Geology. In sense 3, as basement complex, basement rock, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > structure of the earth > [noun] > fundamental complex
basement complex1887
fundamental complex1890
basal complex1897
1842 G. F. Richardson Geol. for Beginners vi. 240 The granite..forming the basement-rock on which all the others repose.
1882 Nature 7 Dec. 122/2 Above these basement strata come more and more crystalline schists,..foliated rocks of many varieties, and true gneisses.
1887 Amer. Jrnl. Sci. 134 259 In each region we start with a great basement complex of crystalline schists, gneiss and granite.
1923 Geogr. Jrnl. 62 24 These Eocene marlstones are an outcrop of the basement rocks of Great Kei.
1956 W. Edwards in D. L. Linton Sheffield 16 The Rhaetic..is..the basement bed of the Lias in this part of Britain.
2000 R. L. Hopkins & L. B. Hopkins Hiking Colorado's Geol. x. 193 The trail..winds its way over rounded, deeply weathered outcrops of Precambrian basement rock.
C4.
basement flat n. †(a) a basement storey (obsolete); (b) (chiefly British) a basement, or part of a basement, used as a complete residence.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > dwelling place or abode > a dwelling > a house > types of house > [noun] > flat or apartment
mansion?c1400
tenement1593
apartmenta1645
basement storey1743
flat1824
house1885
basement flat1894
apt.1901
home unit1929
triplex1932
housing unit1935
1836 Holy Bible I. 25 Strabo, who concurs with him in the dimensions of the basement-flat, adds, that the whole was a stadium in height.
1856 M. Nicol Ismeer iv. 65 The basement flat was wholly occupied by purveyors' stores, store-room, sergeants, wardmasters, orderlies, and convalescents.
1894 Public Health Jan. 126/1 The plaintiff, a shoemaker, said on April 9th he took the basement flat of 3 Ebeneezer Buildings.
1927 Crisis Feb. 202/2 Joe turned his back on Shug Lewis and walked out of the musty basement flat without the slightest suggestion of hurry.
1939 T. S. Eliot Old Possum's Bk. Pract. Cats 29 A small basement flat.
1962 J. G. Bennett Witness xv. 178 My wife and I had found a small basement flat in Bayswater.
2008 J. Archer Prisoner of Birth 4 There's a basement flat just round the corner that's up for sale.
basement membrane n. Anatomy a layer of fibrillar material and glycoprotein situated between a layer of cells and the underlying connective tissue and having a supporting (and sometimes also filtering) function.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > bodily substance > membrane > [noun] > basement
basement membrane1842
1842 W. Bowman in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 132 58 These tubes [sc. nephrons] consist of an external tunic of transparent homogeneous tissue (which I have termed the basement membrane), lined by epithelium.
1888 G. Rolleston & W. H. Jackson Forms Animal Life (ed. 2) 168 A basement membrane..separates the retinulae from the optic ganglion.
1968 New Eng. Jrnl. Med. 11 Jan. 86 (caption) Virus may leak through endothelium and basement membrane into glial cells.
2009 N.Y. Times Mag. 22 Feb. 42/2 Other diseases of the basement membrane of the kidney, like Alport syndrome, have a completely different appearance.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2011; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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