mountain
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See also: Mountain
English
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8b/Winter_sun_on_Norwegian_mountain.jpg/250px-Winter_sun_on_Norwegian_mountain.jpg)
Etymology
[edit]From Middle English mountayne, mountain, montaigne, from Anglo-Norman muntaine, muntaigne, from Early Medieval Latin montānia, a collective based on Latin montem (“mountain”), from Proto-Indo-European *monti (compare Welsh mynydd (“mountain”), Albanian mat (“bank, shore”), Avestan 𐬨𐬀𐬙𐬌 (mati, “promontory”)), from *men- (“to project, stick out”). Displaced native Old English beorg and dūn, and partially displaced non-native Old English munt, from Latin mōns (whence English mount).
Pronunciation
[edit]- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈmaʊn.tɪn/
Audio (UK): (file) - (General American) IPA(key): /ˈmaʊn.tən/, [ˈmaʊn.tn̩][1][2] [ˈmãʊ̯̃(n)ʔn̩], [ˈmæ̃ʊ̯̃(n)ʔn̩]
Audio (US): (file) Audio: (file) - Rhymes: (Received Pronunciation) -aʊntɪn, (General American) -aʊntən
- US: moun‧tain
Noun
[edit]mountain (countable and uncountable, plural mountains)
- (countable) An elevation of land of considerable dimensions rising more or less abruptly, forming a conspicuous figure in the landscape, usually having a small extent of surface at its summit. [from 12th c.]
- Everest is the highest mountain in the world.
- We spent the weekend hiking in the mountains.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Jeremiah 50:6:
- My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace.
- 1807, Joseph Wilson, “Preliminary Observations”, in A History of Mountains, Geographical and Mineralogical, volume 1, London: Nicol, White, Faulders & Asperne, pages xlvi–xlvii:
- Wherever a geologist directs his attention in the midst of a scene of mountains, traces of ruin and decay always meet his eye; and the lofty prominences of our globe, supposed to be the most permanent of nature's works, every where display unequivocal marks of the lapse and effects of time.
- 1829, Edgar Allan Poe, “Tamerlane”, in Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems:
- We walk’d together on the crown
Of a high mountain which look’d down
Afar from its proud natural towers
Of rock and forest, on the hills— […]
- (countable) Something very large in size or quantity; a huge amount; a great heap. [from 15th c.]
- He was a real mountain of a man, standing seven feet tall.
- There's still a mountain of work to do.
- 2002 December 9, “A Mountain of Lies?”, in The Economist[2]:
- Iraq says the mountain of documentation it has provided to the United Nations shows it is innocent of harbouring weapons of mass destruction. America continues to maintain that it has evidence that this is a pack of lies.
- (figuratively) A difficult task or challenge.
- 2011 October 1, Phil Dawkes, “Sunderland 2 - 2 West Brom”, in BBC Sport[3]:
- Five minutes into the game the Black Cats were facing a mountain, partly because of West Brom's newly-found ruthlessness in front of goal but also as a result of the home side's defensive generosity.
- (uncountable, now historical) Wine from Malaga made from grapes that grow on a mountain. [from 18th c.]
- 1785-1789, James Boswell, The English Experiment (diaries):
- Called on Courtenay, with whom I walked to Hampstead Heath, and got into excellent spirits, enjoying fine fresh air; then dined with him tête-a-tête on mutton broth and mackerel and drank mountain and old port moderately.
- (countable, slang) A woman's large breast.
- (cartomancy) The twenty-first Lenormand card.
Usage notes
[edit]- As with the names of rivers and lakes, the names of mountains are typically formed by adding the generic word before or after the unique term. In the case of mountains, when the word precedes the unique term, mount is used: Mount Olympus, Mount Everest, Mount Tai; when the word follows the unique term, mountain is used: Crowfoot Mountain, Blue Mountain, Rugged Mountain. Generally speaking, such names will be adjectives or attributive nouns, but many foreign placenames formed with adjectives—as China's Huashan—are translated as though they were proper names: Mount Hua instead of Hua Mountain or Flourishing Mountain. Mountain chains are never named with mount, only with mountains, a translated term, or a pluralized name.
Synonyms
[edit]Terms derived from Germanic roots
Hyponyms
[edit]Of the sense “an elevation of land”
Meronyms
[edit]Of the sense “an elevation of land”
Holonyms
[edit]Of the sense “an elevation of land”
Derived terms
[edit]Single-word terms derived from “mountain”
- intermountain (adjective)
- intramountain
- midmountain
- Mountain (proper noun)
- mountainboard
- mountain devil
- mountained
- mountaineer (noun/verb)
- mountaineering (noun)
- mountainer
- mountainet
- mountaingem
- mountainless (adjective)
- mountainlike
- mountainness
- mountainscape (noun)
- mountainward
- mountainwards (adverb)
- mountainy (adjective)
- municycling
- nonmountaineer (noun)
- submountain
- transmountain
- undermountain
- upmountain
Attributive uses of the noun “mountain”
- Chinese mountain cat
- Mountainair
- mountain apple
- mountain ash, Mountain Ash
- mountain bearberry
- mountain bike
- mountain boarding
- mountain building
- mountain buzzard
- mountain cat
- Mountain City
- mountain climbing
- mountain cranberry
- mountain dew
- mountain dulcimer
- mountain fever
- mountain goat
- mountain gorilla
- mountain hare
- Mountain Home
- mountain laurel
- mountain lion
- mountain parsley
- mountain reindeer
- mountain sheep
- mountain sickness
- Mountain Standard Time
- Mountain Street
- mountain top removal mining
- mountain unit
- Mountain View
- Mountain View County
- mountain zebra
- Stoliczka's mountain vole
- White Cloud Mountain minnow
Idioms with the word “mountain”
Proverbs with the word “mountain”
Other terms containing the word "mountain" (unsorted)
- acute mountain sickness
- Bavarian mountain hound
- Bernese mountain dog
- butter mountain
- Canby's mountain-lover
- cat-a-mountain
- cat o' mountain
- fire-on-the-mountain
- fold mountain
- Hartmann's mountain zebra
- Illawarra mountain pine
- Japanese mountain yam
- king shit of fuck mountain
- man-mountain
- mountain antelope
- mountain avens
- mountain avocetbill
- mountain beaver
- mountain bicycle
- mountain biker
- mountain biking
- mountain blue
- mountain bluebird
- mountain bramble
- mountain cabbage
- mountain carpet clover
- mountain cheese
- mountain chickadee
- mountain chicken
- mountain climber
- mountain clouded yellow
- mountain cork
- mountain deer
- mountain degu
- mountain fir clubmoss
- mountain flax
- mountain fold
- mountain grape
- mountain green
- mountain guide
- mountain gun
- mountain hemlock
- mountain howitzer
- mountain in labour
- mountain leader
- mountain leather
- mountain limestone
- mountain lioness
- mountain lover
- mountain mahogany
- mountain man
- mountain maple
- mountain marrow
- mountain meal
- mountain milk
- mountain mint
- mountain misery
- mountain nyala
- mountain oyster
- mountain panther
- mountain papaya
- mountain parrot
- mountain pass
- mountain pawpaw
- mountain pecker
- mountain pine
- mountain plum
- mountain quail
- mountain rat
- mountain rescue
- mountain rescuer
- mountain rice
- mountain ringlet
- mountain shrike
- mountain soap
- mountain soursop
- mountain specter
- mountain spectre
- mountain spinach
- mountain tallow
- mountain tea
- mountain tobacco
- mountain to climb
- mountain top
- mountain vole
- mountain wagtail
- mountain wolf
- snow-on-the-mountain
- snow on the mountain top
- trans-mountain
- White Mountain
- White Mountains
Related terms
[edit]Terms derived from Latin “mōns”
- amount (noun/verb)
- demount (verb)
- dismount (verb)
- intramountainous (adjective)
- montane (adjective/noun)
- montanic (adjective)
- mount (noun/verb)
- mountainous (adjective)
- mountainously (adverb)
- mountainousness (noun)
- nonmountainous (adjective)
- paramount (adjective)
- sermountain (noun)
- surmount (verb)
- unmount (verb)
- unmountainous (adjective)
Translations
[edit]large mass of earth and rock
|
large amount
|
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- “mountain”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- “mountain”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- ^ “mountain”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.,
- ^ “OALD”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)[1], 2012 December 26 (last accessed), archived from the original on 1 November 2012
Further reading
[edit]mountain on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Mountain in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)
Anagrams
[edit]Middle English
[edit]Noun
[edit]mountain
- Alternative form of mountayne
Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *men- (stand out)
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Anglo-Norman
- English terms derived from Early Medieval Latin
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/aʊntɪn
- Rhymes:English/aʊntɪn/2 syllables
- Rhymes:English/aʊntən
- Rhymes:English/aʊntən/2 syllables
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with historical senses
- English slang
- en:Cartomancy
- en:Landforms
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English nouns