Talk:top

Is the word "top" related to the words "topography" and "topology"?


 * I do not think so. The topo- (nor top-) prefix isn't yet defined here yet, but I'm think they are unrelated.  --Connel MacKenzie 21:12, 3 October 2006 (UTC)


 * No, they are not related. The word top is from Proto-Germanic *tuppaz. It entered Proto-Germanic from an unknown non-Indo-European language. However, the top- of words such as topography, topology, and utopia is from Greek τόπος (topos, place). —Stephen 00:40, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

Sense #9
Just because one is a top doesn't neccessarily mean one is sexually "active" or "dominant". I think that is a bit misleading. Tooironic 08:23, 14 November 2009 (UTC)
 * fucking would be more precise, gay slang has pushy bottom as "active" or "dominant" partner in a sexual play where one is nevertheless fucked. --Diligent 18:32, 14 June 2011 (UTC)

RFV discussion: August–September 2006

 * See Talk:бедбахт.

An odd usage
Here is a curious and probably non-standard usage I saw today (a Web page about hangover cures): "To help balance your blood sugar try banana topped on oat cakes". Note that the object of the verb is the thing placed on top, not the thing on which it is placed. Equinox ◑ 22:38, 23 June 2017 (UTC)

RFC discussion: October 2010–October 2017
rfc-sense: "That part of an object furthest away in the opposite direction from that in which an unsupported object would fall. " tagged by someone, seemingly two different users, with the following invisible comment:. Mglovesfun (talk) 16:32, 31 October 2010 (UTC)


 * Right, I tagged this years ago with It is still gibberish to me. If I stand a pencil on one end and watch it fall, the opposite direction from the way it falls is not the top. In orbit around a celestial body, a water bottle has a top and a bottom in spite of the fact that there is no gravity to cause it to fall in any direction. —Stephen (Talk) 04:55, 1 November 2010 (UTC)
 * On earth, if you lay a cereal box on its side, you can talk about "the side of which is currently its top", as well as of "the top of the box, which is now on the side facing you". These are two senses of top: one, the side currently facing away from the pull of gravity, and the other, the side which is usually facing away from the pull of gravity (or some better definition than that, most likely). The first corresponds to our tagged sense. &#x200b;—msh210℠ (talk) 16:40, 1 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Perhaps it does, but wording could be better. In fact I've read this about ten times, I still don't get it. "Furthest away in the opposite direction" looks bad to me. Mglovesfun (talk) 16:56, 1 November 2010 (UTC)
 * I agree that it's worded opaquely; I was commenting only on SGB's implication that the definition is wrong. As to the opacity, perhaps "That part or end of an object which is farthest from the source of gravity"? (But physicists will cringe.) By the way, we're missing the other sense I used in my cereal-box example: the usually-farthest-from-the-'source'-of-gravity sense. And I think our currently second sense (The part viewed, or intended to be viewed, nearest the edge of the visual field normally occupied by the uppermost visible objects: Headings appear at the tops of pages; Further weather information can be found at the top of your television screen) is nonexistent, or redundant to our first. &#x200b;—msh210℠ (talk) 17:29, 1 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Let's not forget that the top of a box is still the top if you turn it upside down. Certain things just naturally have a top side, which is the easiest-to-open side, the side where the writing is the right side up, etc. —CodeCat 00:03, 14 November 2010 (UTC)


 * You're right that there are two senses of top, it's got nothing to do with gravity though. Whoever wrote this just meant "uppermost" or "highest". < class="latinx" >Ƿidsiþ 10:40, 24 November 2010 (UTC)
 * I have cleaned up the defs a bit - making two defs to cover the senses discussed above, adding citation and ux. If someone agrees, we can remove the rfc.-Sonofcawdrey (talk) 01:35, 30 September 2017 (UTC)


 * Thanks SOC! Looks clean to me now. RFC removed. --P5Nd2 (talk) 11:02, 10 October 2017 (UTC)

RFV discussion: April 2021
sense: "Someone who takes a position physically above their partner during sexual activity." Colin M (talk) 14:41, 14 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Speedily deleted, see also talk:power bottom.__Gamren (talk) 18:56, 16 April 2021 (UTC)

Near end of somewhere
I’ve added a sense of ‘the near end of somewhere’ to correspond with the sense I just added to bottom (‘the far end of somewhere’). A place can be near and not in an elevated position relative to its surroundings and still be at the ‘top’ of the garden/road/street. Overlordnat1 (talk) 10:22, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

top-rated: highly rated
Considered highest in quality or rank:'' the city's ten top-rated restaurants. '' JMGN (talk) 08:43, 7 April 2024 (UTC)