The Ground Floor

I've always believed in a distinction between the nouns 'ground' and 'floor', in which 'ground' is taken to mean something natural and geologically long-established, and 'floor' to be something man-made and either laid on top of the ground or constructed at some height above it.

Current usage seems to be losing 'ground', if you'll excuse a (possibly military) diversion. It is usual now to say 'I fell on the floor', even when the falling was done in, say, a desert. 'Ground' is much more rarely heard in this context.

There's no doubt that it's an interesting pair of related words. Indeed we speak of the 'ocean floor' and not the 'ocean ground'.

Of course, most things these days are said (irritatingly) to have a 'ground zero'. Perhaps the words are in the process of change.

Possibly from all us ex-pats in the USA who still get confused in elevators (lifts). Ground (or) zero would make sense if the buttons were so marked!

The OED has examples of "ground" for "floor" going back to the mid-19th century and a few, mostly poetic, examples of "floor" for "ground" going back to 1400; it also cites "floor" for "ground" as cricket slang (early 20th C.). So it's not entirely a new development.

The two real exceptions to your "man-made vs. natural" rule seem to be "threshing-floor" (which is debatable, because it's arguably an area that has been deliberately cleared and levelled for the purpose) and the solid surface under a body of water (ocean, well, sea, etc.) where "floor", "bottom" and "ground" all seem to have been used almost interchangeably at various times.

Since "ground zero" in its correct technical sense is essentially "epicentre" the other way up, it seems unreasonable to expect anyone to use it correctly in a non-technical sense. Where would we pedants be without a good supply of such technical terms to grumble about?

"I've always believed in a distinction between the nouns 'ground' and 'floor', in which 'ground' is taken to mean something natural and geologically long-established, and 'floor' to be something man-made and either laid on top of the ground or constructed at some height above it."

Sounds right to me.

Don't think I'd ever describe myself as "falling on the floor" if I was outside a building.

>1 CliffordDorset: Where is it usual to hear "falling on the floor" when one is outside? I've never heard that usage in California.

Is "falling on the floor" when you are not inside something like "being floored"?

I've never heard "falling on the floor" in regards to the out of doors, either.

What about the floor of a cave? Or the ocean floor?

The all-knowing Google reveals that there's a family of text-messaging abbreviations that start with "FOFL" for "falling on the floor laughing". That could account for a surge of popularity for "floor" over "ground".

A floor would often seem to indicate when the surface is contained within something or surrounded. Ocean floor, cave, valley....

>11 bernsad: Would agree there, Floor appears to relate to an enclosed space.

The “ground floor” in our local hospital is refered to in their “patients guide” sic as “Entry-level floor ”. The floor below that is refered to as “Sub-floor”.

In the patients' lift, however, (sorry “elevator” if English is your second language :o)) the buttons are marked “G”, which I assume is for “Ground” and “B”, which I assume is for basement.

So very helpful to patients wandering on crutches and in wheelchairs. Chaos!

>12 Novak:
The Dutch for ground floor is "begane grond" (literally: walked-upon ground), so lifts often have a button marked "B" where English ones would say "G"...

>12 Novak:

The “ground floor” in our local hospital is refered to in their “patients guide” sic as “Entry-level floor ”.

But that's another storey ...

Groan!

Groan floor.. !

>13 thorold: I don't know that I've ever seen that... Elevators always have 0 for ground.

Ack doublepost, what the heck, what happened to the script that stops that from happening, grr.

>17 .Monkey.: Not always.

Last week I was on the first floor of a hospital. I took the elevator to the second floor. No problem there. When I got on the elevator to go back down to the first floor again, I had at least 3 choices, one of which, as I recall, was Ground. None of the choices displayed a 1 or a 0. Turns out, Ground was wrong; that goes to a below-street level. I think it worked to use Main, but I might be misremembering that since Mezzanine was also a stop. Don't remember which one used M.

Of course, some of the confusion is that, as I understand it, in the UK "Ground" means street level, while 1 is the first floor above that. In the US, Ground and 1st floor are interchangeable. One level up from that is 2nd floor.

Naturally, since I got flustered in the elevator the next time I go there I won't remember which button takes me to the street level. But at least I'll remember that I'll have multiple choices, so maybe I won't panic.

>19 PhaedraB: Right, I'm referring to in Europe (most especially in the Netherlands & Belgium) and Thorold's claim that in Dutch they have a "B" for that level. I may have seen one with that at some point, but it's quite rare. They wouldn't have a 1 though, as 1 is, as you mention, the "first floor," i.e. first floor above ground level. They have 0 for street level, -1 for the level below, 1 for the level above, and so forth.

>20 .Monkey.:
Yes, I think I was probably exaggerating a bit with "often" - the lifts in the building where I live and the building where I work, which were both built in the last ten years or so, follow the "0, -1" convention, that must be the current standard. But I've certainly seen "3,2,1,B,K" in older buildings, including the 1960s building where I used to live. (Of course, there's the other complication that digging out basements in Holland is difficult and expensive unless you want an instant swimming-pool, so in practice "-1" in apartment buildings is usually only half a floor below street level and "0" is half a floor above it...)