undercurrent
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: derivation
Etymology: Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *h₁én
Proto-Indo-European *h₁entér
Proto-Indo-European *(H)n̥dʰí
Proto-Indo-European *-ér
Proto-Indo-European *(H)n̥dʰér
Proto-Germanic *under
Proto-West Germanic *undar
Old English under-
Middle English under-
English under-
Proto-Indo-European *ḱers-
Proto-Indo-European *-éti
Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥séti
Proto-Italic *korzō
Latin currere
Old French corre
Old French curantbor.
Middle English curraunt
English current
English undercurrent
From under- + current.
Inflected forms:
form: undercurrents
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: undercurrents
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: undercurrenting
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: undercurrented
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: undercurrented
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A current of water which flows under the surface, and often in a different direction from surface currents.
pos: noun
examples: For that an undercurrent (which ſome have beleived,) in the ſtraights-mouth, will not ſolve this difficulty, unleſs occaſioned by a vaſt Gulf that muſt be placed ſomewhere in the Atlantic near the Mouth of the ſtraight, which though overflown and hidden by that mighty ſea, yet may poſſibly abſorb the deeper waters, and ſo cauſe a contrary undercurrent.
[W]e have a surface current of saltish water from the poles towards the equator, and an undercurrent of water, saltier and heavier, from the equator to the poles. This undercurrent supplies in a great measure the salt which the upper current, freighted with fresh water from the clouds and rivers, carries back.
gloss: A tendency of feeling or opinion that is concealed rather than exposed.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
examples: The meeting was pervaded with an undercurrent of dread, as the managers tried not to admit that firings were looming.
All the while there was a busy undercurrent in her, like the thought of a man who keeps up a dialogue while he is considering how he can slip away.
Voltaire showed little respect for any conventionality which did not command his acquiescence; yet it may be doubted whether an undercurrent of affectation does not more or less mar the effect of everything he has written.
A vaguely defined genre (as the name announces, it was first noticed by the French), Film Noir is one of the more complex and intelligent Hollywood styles. Part detective story, part gangster, part urban melodrama, Film Noir was identified best by its dark and pessimistic undercurrents.
Although the crowd was predominantly red-and-white, there was also a Romanian flavour, which these days in football terms tends to mean there is at least an undercurrent of discontent.
The feminist undercurrents of Fury Road got a lot of ink when the movie came out; critics loved pointing out that [George] Miller had brought in The Vagina Monologues writer Eve Ensler as an on-set consultant.
gloss: To flow under some surface.
pos: verb
tags: also
figuratively
transitive
examples: The latter are stoically steady, impervious to the nervousness that still continues to undercurrent the Stock Exchange generally, despite an all-round rally.
Her lips hardly moving, every feature steady, she undercurrented my narrative with ejaculations in French, Russian, Italian.
The emotions undercurrenting the command left her with no doubt that he planned to do as he said.
Mining-wights could be heard at work in the walls, sometimes undercurrented by the drone and whirr of eldritch spinning wheels.
Synonyms: rip current
undertow
Related words: undertow
Translations: