Pronounced: SEE-krit of po-LISH-ih-nel, noun
Notes: This phrase is new to me
Yesterday’s word
The word superficies means
- a surface of a body or a region of space
- the external aspects or appearance of a thing
First usage
Our word came into English in the mid-1500s
Background / Comments
I thought that this word referred to things sticking out of an object; something like spikes or knobs. Interestingly, although our word ends with s, it is both singular and plural. In addition, it comes from the same source as “surface”, although “surface” came to us via Middle French. In addition, our word is older than “surface”. Our word came straight from the Latin word superficies (surface). It is composed of super- (on top) and facies (face; aspect).
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 