floor

Definition

The interior bottom or surface of a house or building; the supporting surface of a room.

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English flor, flore, from Old English flōr (“floor, pavement, ground, bottom”), from Proto-West Germanic *flōr, from Proto-Germanic *flōraz (“flat surface, floor, plain”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂ros (“floor”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂- (“flat”). Cognate with Scots flair, fluir (“floor”), Saterland Frisian Floor (“floor”), West Frisian flier (“floor”), Dutch vloer (“floor”), German Flur (“field, floor, entrance hall”), German Low German Floor (“entry hall”), Luxembourgish Flouer (“countryside, farmland”), Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish flor (“floor of a cow stall”), Irish urlár (“floor”), Scottish Gaelic làr (“floor, ground, earth”), Welsh llawr (“floor, ground”), Latin plānus (“level, flat”).

Example Sentences

• "The room has a wooden floor."
• "A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor; as, again, the arm-chair in which Bunting now sat forward, staring into the dull, small fire."
• "The leaves covering the forest floor provide many hiding-places for small animals."

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