Both Uses of
strata
in
Far from the Madding Crowd
- The vast arch of cloud above was strangely low, and formed as it were the roof of a large dark cavern, gradually sinking in upon its floor; for the instinctive thought was that the snow lining the heavens and that encrusting the earth would soon unite into one mass without any intervening stratum of air at all.
Chpt 10-12 *stratum = layereditor's notes: Strata, the plural form of this word is used much more commonly than the singular form. Many Latin words that end in "um" are made plural by changing the "um" to "a"--such as stratum to strata, bacterium to bacteria, and millennium to millennia. In modern writing, changing the "um" to "ums" is also accepted for many Latin words ending in um, but not for any of those listed above.
- A heated breeze from the south slowly fanned the summits of lofty objects, and in the sky dashes of buoyant cloud were sailing in a course at right angles to that of another stratum, neither of them in the direction of the breeze below.
Chpt 34-36
Definition:
-
(strata) layers
or:
levels, classes, or groups into which people or other things are divided