Meaning: root

Illustrative Context

You could see some of the roots of the tree above the ground.

Target Sense

• The most generic term for the root(s) of a plant, typically mostly underground in the soil, that both anchor and nourish the plant.
• As a generic term, this will typically be applicable to many (almost all) types of plant, although — as in the illustrative context — it should minimally be applicable to trees (as defined in the separate IE-CoR meaning tree. Avoid terms specific to the roots of trees only, however, except if your language has no basic broader term that can apply to both trees and other plants.
• Follow common usage and basic vocabulary. Strict technical and biological classification criteria are not necessarily relevant — on this, see also the definitions for the separate IE-CoR meanings tree, snake, wing and ant.
• Avoid narrower terms in any sense, e.g. terms specifically for root plants that are edible.
• In languages in which the basic term is, as with English root or French racine, a count noun that in the singular can refer to a single ‘branch’ of the root system as a whole, then enter that form. If your language instead has as its default term a non-count or collective noun, and specifying a single root (branch) would require additional singulative morphology, then enter this more basic non-count form.
• The target is a neutral register: do not enter technical biological or agricultural terms such as tuber, rhizome.
• The target sense is the literal one of the part of a plant. Avoid narrower terms specific to figurative extensions of the English lexeme root, e.g. for the root of a tooth, problem, etc..