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BACKGROUND

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back⋅ground

  [bak-ground]
Use BACKGROUND in a Sentence
–noun
1. the ground or parts, as of a scene, situated in the rear (opposed to foreground ).
2. Fine Arts.
a. the part of a painted or carved surface against which represented objects and forms are perceived or depicted: a portrait against a purple background.
b. the part of an image represented as being at maximum distance from the frontal plane.
3. one's origin, education, experience, etc., in relation to one's present character, status, etc.
4. the social, historical, and other antecedents or causes of an event or condition: the background of the war.
5. the complex of physical, cultural, and psychological factors that serves as the environment of an event or experience; the set of conditions against which an occurrence is perceived.
6. Physics. the totality of effects that tend to obscure a phenomenon under investigation and above which the phenomenon must be detected.
7. Telecommunications. (in an electronic device for transmitting or receiving signals) the sum of the effects, as noise or random signals, from which a phenomenon must differentiate itself in character or degree in order to be detected.
–adjective
8. of, pertaining to, or serving as a background: background noise.
–verb (used with object)
9. to supply a background to: The passenger's idle thoughts were backgrounded by the drone of the plane's engines.
10. to supply a background of information for: To background themselves, reporters dug through all available files on the case.
—Idiom
11. in or into the background, unobtrusive; inconspicuous; out of sight or notice; in or into obscurity: He kept his dishonest dealings in the background.
Origin:
1665–75; back 1 + ground 1

Synonyms:
4. environment, circumstances, upbringing, milieu, element, sphere, medium.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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back·ground   (bāk'ground')   
n.  

  1. The ground or scenery located behind something.

    1. The part of a pictorial representation that appears to be in the distance and that provides relief for the principal objects in the foreground.

    2. The general scene or surface against which designs, patterns, or figures are represented or viewed.

    3. Sound that intrudes on or interferes with an audio recording.

    4. Low-level radiation, as from radioactive decay, that exists as part of the natural environment.

  3. A position or area of relative inconspicuousness or unimportance.

  4. The circumstances and events surrounding or leading up to an event or occurrence.

  5. A person's experience, training, and education: Her background in the arts is impressive.

  6. Subdued music played especially as an accompaniment to dialogue in a dramatic performance.

    1. Sound that intrudes on or interferes with an audio recording.

    2. Low-level radiation, as from radioactive decay, that exists as part of the natural environment.

back'ground' v.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

background 
1672, from back + ground; original sense was theatrical, later applied to painting. Fig. sense is first attested 1854.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Computing Dictionary

background
1. A task running in the background (a background task) is detached from the terminal where it was started (and often running at a lower priority); opposite of foreground. This means that the task's input and output must be from/to files (or other processes).
Nowadays this term is primarily associated with Unix, but it appears to have been first used in this sense on OS/360.
Compare amp off, batch, slopsucker.
2. For a human to do a task "in the background" is to do it whenever foreground matters are not claiming your undivided attention, and "to background" something means to relegate it to a lower priority. "For now, we'll just print a list of nodes and links; I'm working on the graph-printing problem in the background." Note that this implies ongoing activity but at a reduced level or in spare time, in contrast to mainstream "back burner" (which connotes benign neglect until some future resumption of activity). Some people prefer to use the term for processing that they have queued up for their unconscious minds (often a fruitful tack to take upon encountering an obstacle in creative work).
(1996-05-28)

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe
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