Mining Gave English Undermine and Countermine
Mining is extracting minerals from the earth. Siege warfare used the same technique, and left the language two metaphors.
Mining is the extraction of minerals from the earth. Siege warfare borrowed the craft: attackers dug tunnels beneath walls to collapse them, which is literally *undermining*, and defenders dug *countermines* to intercept them. Both words survive as metaphors, and *mine* meaning an explosive device comes from the same practice.
- Extracting minerals. *Coal mining.*
- Digging a siege tunnel. *Mining the walls.*
- Data mining — extracting patterns from data. *Data mining techniques.*
- Undermine — to weaken from beneath. *Undermine confidence.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | mining | Open-cast mining. |
| Verb | mine | Mine the seam. |
| Person | miner | A coal miner. |
| Noun | mine | A tin mine. |
| Verb | undermine | Undermine the argument. |
How it is used in a sentence
- Undermine originally meant to dig beneath a wall.Siege warfare.
- Data mining finds patterns in large sets.Computing.
- Canaries were used in coal mines until 1986.To detect carbon monoxide.
Kinds of mining
- Open-cast or open-pit — removing material from the surface down
- Shaft mining — a vertical entry to deep seams
- Drift mining — a horizontal entry into a hillside
- Placer mining — separating minerals from river sediment
- Longwall — mechanised extraction of a long coal face
From *mine*, from Old French *miner*, of uncertain earlier origin, possibly Celtic. The explosive sense comes from siege tunnels packed with powder.
Why is an explosive called a mine?
From siege warfare, where a tunnel dug under a wall was packed with explosives. The device took the name of the tunnel.
What is data mining?
Extracting useful patterns from large sets of data, using the metaphor of digging valuable material out of the ground.