different between supine vs upright

English

Etymology

The adjective is borrowed from Latin sup?nus (“lying down with the face upwards, supine; careless, heedless, thoughtless, negligent, indolent; (grammar) supine”), from *sup- (see sub (“under”)) + -?nus (“of, pertaining to”). The word is cognate with Catalan supí, Italian supino (“on one's back, supine”), Old French sovin, Middle French souvin, Anglo-Norman supin, Old Occitan sobin, sopin, Portuguese supino (“on one's back, supine”), Spanish supino (“on one's back, supine”).

The noun is from Late Middle English supin (“supine of a Latin verb”) or Middle French supin (“(grammar) supine”), from Latin sup?num, (ellipsis of sup?num verbum (“supine verb”)), from sup?nus; further etymology above.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?s(j)u?pa?n/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?su?pa?n/, /?su?pa?n/
• Hyphenation: sup?ine

Adjective

supine (comparative more supine, superlative most supine)

1. Lying on its back.

   Synonym: reclined

   Antonyms: prone, prostrate
2. (figuratively) Reluctant to take action due to indifference or moral weakness; apathetic or passive towards something.

   Synonyms: passive, peaceful, lazy, lethargic, listless
3. (rare, now poetic) Inclining or leaning backward; inclined, sloping.

   Synonyms: inclined, sloping

Antonyms

• nonsupine
• prone

Derived terms

Related terms

• resupine

Translations

Noun

supine (plural supines)

1. (grammar, also attributively) In Latin and other languages: a type of verbal noun used in the ablative and accusative cases, which shares the same stem as the passive participle.
2. (grammar, also attributively) In Swedish, Faroese, Icelandic and Old Norse: a verb form that combines with an inflection of ha/hafa/hava to form the present perfect and pluperfect tenses.
3. (grammar, also attributively) (obsolete terminology) The 'to'-prefixed infinitive in English or other Germanic languages, so named because the infinitive was regarded as a verbal noun and the 'to'-prefixed form of it was seen as the dative form of the verbal noun; the full infinitive.

Derived terms

• supine tense

Translations

See also

• gerund
• infinitive

References

Further reading

• supine position on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• supine (grammar) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• supine (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• puisne, punies

Italian

Adjective

supine

1. feminine plural of supino

Latin

Adjective

sup?ne

1. vocative masculine singular of sup?nus

References

• supine in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• supine in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette

English

Etymology

From Middle English upright, uppryght, upriht, from Old English upriht (“upright; erect”), from Proto-Germanic *upprehtaz, equivalent to up- +? right. Cognate with Saterland Frisian apgjucht (“upright”), West Frisian oprjocht (“upright”), Dutch oprecht (“upright”), German Low German uprecht (“upright”), German aufrecht (“upright”), Swedish upprätt (“upright”), Icelandic upprétt (“upright”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??p?a?t/

Adjective

upright (comparative more upright, superlative most upright)

1. Vertical; erect.

   I was standing upright, waiting for my orders.

   • 1608, William Shakespeare, The merry Deuill of Edmonton, introduction, lines 1–4

     Fab[ell]:?What meanes the tolling of this fatall chime, // O what a trembling horror ?trikes my hart! // My ?tiffned haire ?tands vpright on my head, // As doe the bri?tles of a porcupine.

   • 1782, Fanny Burney, Cecilia; or, Memoirs of an Heiress, volume V, Book X, chapter X: “A Termination”, page 372

     Supported by pillows, ?he ?at almo?t upright.
2. Greater in height than breadth.
3. (figuratively) Of good morals; practicing ethical values.
   • 1611, King James Version, Job 1:1:

     There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.

4. (of a golf club) Having the head approximately at a right angle with the shaft.

Synonyms

• (vertical, erect): surrect (obsolete, rare)

Derived terms

• upright bass, upright bassist

Translations

Adverb

upright (comparative more upright, superlative most upright)

1. in or into an upright position

Translations

Noun

upright (plural uprights)

1. Any vertical part of a structure, especially one of the goal posts in sports.
2. A word clued by the successive initial, middle, or final letters of the cross-lights in a double acrostic or triple acrostic.
3. (informal) An upright piano.
4. (informal) An upright arcade game cabinet.
   • 2013, Jon Peddie, The History of Visual Magic in Computers (page 181)

     The video arcade machines are typically in stand up arcade cabinets, although some have been built as tables. The uprights have a monitor and controls in front and players insert coins or tokens into the machines to play the game.

5. Short for upright vacuum cleaner.

Holonyms

• (word clued by successive letters): double acrostic, triple acrostic

Related terms

• upright piano

Translations

Verb

upright (third-person singular simple present uprights, present participle uprighting, simple past and past participle uprighted)

1. (transitive) To set upright or stand back up (something that has fallen).