A horizon

noun Geology.

the topsoil in a soil profile.

Also called zone of leaching.

Compare B horizon, C horizon.

Origin:
1935–40

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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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World English Dictionary

A horizon

—n
	B horizon See C horizon the top layer of a soil profile, usually dark-coloured and containing humus and from which soluble salts may have been leached

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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A horizon is always a great word to know.

So is interrobang. Does it mean:

an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.

a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.

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American Heritage

Science Dictionary

A horizon
In ABC soil, the uppermost, darkest zone that is rich in organic matter. The upper section of the A horizon usually contains humus along with plant and animal matter in varying stages of decay. The middle section usually contains a high concentration of quartz or other minerals that remain following the leaching away of clay, iron, and aluminum. The lower section is typically transitional in nature between the A horizon and the B horizon. Also called zone of leaching.

Matching Quote

"A language is therefore a horizon, and style a vertical dimension, which together map out for the writer a Nature, since he does not choose either. The language functions negatively, as the initial limit of the possible, style is a Necessity which binds the writer's humour to his form of expression. In the former, he finds a familiar History, in the latter, a familiar personal past. In both cases he deals with a Nature, that is, a familiar repertory of gestures, a gestuary, as it were, in which the energy expended is purely operative, serving here to enumerate, there to transform, but never to appraise or signify a choice."

-Roland Barthes

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