A surface is the outside layer or top part of something. It is the part you can touch or see, like the surface of a table, a lake, or a planet.
From French 'surface', from Latin 'super-' (above) and 'facies' (face, appearance). It literally meant the 'upper face' of something.
We talk about 'scratching the surface' when we barely start to understand something. The word reminds us that most things—people, ideas, even science—have hidden depths below what we first see.
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