subnival

English[edit]

WOTD – 1 December 2022

PIE word
*upó

From sub- (prefix meaning ‘beneath, under’) +‎ nival (“abounding with snow; snow-covered, snowy; found or thriving in snowy conditions”), borrowed from German subnival, from Late Latin subnivalis,^[1] from Latin sub- (prefix meaning ‘beneath, under’) + nivālis (“snow-covered; snowy”) (from nix (“snow”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sneygʷʰ- (“to snow”)) + -ālis (suffix forming adjectives of relationship)).

subnival (not comparable) (chiefly botany)

Of a habitat: of an altitude, latitude, or type just below that which would be permanently covered by snow (the snow line).
- 1969, Wendelin Klaer, “Glazialmorphologische Probleme in den Hochgebirgen Vorderasiens [Glacial Morphological Problems in the High Mountains of the Near East]”, in Erdkunde: Archive for Scientific Geography, volume XXIII, number 3, Bonn: University of Bonn, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, summary, page 193, column 1:
  In this way, the ‘subnival’ mountain range on the southern facet with its strong solifluction influence (level slope formation) approaches in height the ‘nival’ mountain range on the northern facet, which is distinguished by its well developed glacial forms.
Growing or capable of growing, or occurring, underneath snow; subnivean.

of a habitat: of an altitude, latitude, or type just below that which would be permanently covered by snow

growing or capable of growing, or occurring, underneath snow — see also subnivian

^ “subnival, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2022.