the.com/overlay
A layer pretending to be the whole picture, politely covering what's underneath.
means Something placed or displayed on top of an existing layer, modifying or masking it without erasing what's beneath.
from Straightforward English carpentry of parts: 'over' plus 'lay,' from Old English lecgan, meaning to place or put down. It's been used literally since medieval times for one thing laid atop another — a cloth over a table, gold leaf over wood — long before it got drafted into design, printing, and screens, where it still just means: this sits on top of that.
- design term
- any UI element floating above the main content
- streaming use
- that scoreboard or webcam box over gameplay
- cartography origin
- transparent sheets stacked to compare map layers
- dark side
- can block buttons or hide what you need most