Core

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /kɔː/

Definitions

1. The innermost or most significant section of an object can be described as its essential segment
2. An integral element that serves as the foundation of a larger system is often termed the crucial part
3. The central or most important part of something is referred to as its fundamental segment

Etymology: The most striking thing about "core" is how little anyone can say for certain about where it came from. Its earliest English form, Middle English "core" or "coor", meant the central, inedible part of an apple, the pith and seeds at its heart. Etymologists have proposed several possible sources, including a native English root shared with words for seed and grain, and a link to Old French "cuer" meaning heart, which would tie it to Latin "cor". Neither can be confirmed, so the word's ancestry remains open. The sense of "the most important part of something" grew out of that literal fruit-centre. A core is the part everything else surrounds, so the meaning drifted from the physical middle of an apple to the essential middle of an argument, a team, or a system.

Synonyms: center, nucleus, heart, essence, hub

Antonyms: periphery, outer, margin, fringe, surface