"Mi bezonas ian profundan korbon."

Translation: I need some kind of deep basket.

[MultiNonym]

Finally, that degree in underwater basket weaving pays off!

[brunofrra]

Damn my BA in communications!

[RomajiAmulo]

What kind of deep?

[JoshLingo1800]

Deep as in depth not deep (profound)

[ActualGoat]

I believe, that in some occasions, it can mean either.

[zerozeroone]

Now I'm imagining a wicker basket with a glass of wine and a cigarette saying (with a bad French accent) "I found the film trite. The plot seemed to me rather jejune and..." (long drag on the cigarette) "...on the whole typical of the pathetic attempts of Hollywood to substitute noise and motion for actual talent."

[KithPendragon]

I'm imagining one filled with an unsatisfying emptiness that isn't me.

[CaribbeanMax]

In English you can simple say "I need ANY deep basket" with the meaning of ".. any kind of..."

[tommylinsley]

It would appear from this Adjectives lesson that "profunda" can mean "profound" (intellectual) [i]either/or[/i] "deep" (physical). I would think that there would be 2 different words (i.e. "koni" (to know personally) versus "scii" (to know intellectually)). Or, is "profunda" one of those words that just depends on context only?

Ĉu la kanto estas profunda aŭ malprofunda? = Is the song profound or superficial?
versus
"Mi bezonas ian profundan korbon." = I need some kind of deep basket.

[tommylinsley]

Here is the answer I got from Tim Morley (a language instructor at Cambridge):
" "profunda" means "deep", in either the literal or the figurative sense. The ocean is "profunda". A conversation or a thought can also be "profunda".

As it happens, English also has the word "profound" in addition to "deep", but whereas "deep" works both literally and figuratively, "profound" is a synonym only for the figurative sense.

In Esperanto you don't get words that are restricted in this way. You're free to use any word literally or figuratively at your pleasure."

[masukomi]

I wonder if the esperanto comes from the Spanish, in which it also has both meanings.

[lyubomirv]

It's not just Spanish. Bulgarian has one word for the two cases too.

[Hubinou]

French also has one word with both meanings : profond.

• La mer est profonde (the sea is deep)

• une pensée profonde (a profond thought)

But the meanings are not that different. The second one means a thought coming form the deep of a brain.