Above

Part of speech: preposition, adverb

Pronunciation: /əˈbʌv/

Definitions

1. located at a higher level or position than something else
2. Situated at a level higher than another object or area ; mentioned or referred to previously in written material
3. Being physically over or on top of something else ; indicated earlier in a piece of writing

Etymology: The word "above" is built from older parts that each meant something close to "over" or "by." Its ancestor in Old English was "ābufan" or "onbufan," formed from "on" (meaning "on") plus "bufan" ("over"). "Bufan" itself was made from "be" or "bī" ("by") plus "ufan" ("over"), so the word is essentially a stack of "on," "by," and "over" that gradually fused into one unit. The same pattern appears across the Germanic languages. Dutch has "boven," German has "oben," Swedish has "ovan," and Danish has "oven," all descending from the same compound. English also shows the transformation from older forms like "abovn" and "aboven" in Middle English, which were gradually shortened to the modern spelling. Notably, the adverb came first. The preposition, adjective, and noun uses all developed from it, so the word began as a directional idea about position in space before it extended into the other roles it plays today.

Synonyms: over, higher than, upon

Antonyms: below, under