mountain
pronunciation
How to pronounce mountain in British English:
UK [ˈmaʊntən]
How to pronounce mountain in American English:
US [ˈmaʊn.tən]
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- Noun:
- a land mass that projects well above its surroundings; higher than a hill
- a large number or amount
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- Adjective:
- relating to or located in mountains
Word Origin
- mountain
- mountain: [13] Latin mōns ‘mountain’ could well go back ultimately to a variant of the base *min- ‘jut’ which produced English eminent, imminent, menace, and prominent. English acquired it originally direct from Latin as a noun, mount [OE], which is now used only in the names of mountains. The verb mount followed in the 14th century, via Old French munter.Latin mōns had a derived adjective montānus ‘mountainous’, which was adapted in Vulgar Latin to the noun *montānea ‘mountainous area’. This made its way into Old French as montaigne, by which time it meant simply ‘mountain’ – whence English mountain. Amount [13] comes ultimately from the Latin phrase ad montem ‘to the mountain’, hence ‘upwards’; and paramount [16] in turn derives from an Old French phrase par amont ‘by above’, hence ‘superior’.=> amount, eminent, imminent, menace, mount, paramount, prominent, tantamount
- mountain (n.)
- c. 1200, from Old French montaigne (Modern French montagne), from Vulgar Latin *montanea "mountain, mountain region," noun use of fem. of *montaneus "of a mountain, mountainous," from Latin montanus "mountainous, of mountains," from mons (genitive montis) "mountain" (see mount (n.)). Until 18c., applied to a fairly low elevation if it was prominent (such as Sussex Downs, the hills around Paris). As an adjective from late 14c. Mountain dew "raw and inferior whiskey" first recorded 1839; earlier a type of Scotch whiskey (1816); Jamieson's 1825 "Supplement" to his Scottish dictionary defines it specifically as "A cant term for Highland whisky that has paid no duty." Mountain-climber recorded from 1839; mountain-climbing from 1836.
Example
- 1. Mountain pass itself won 't break china 's stranglehold .
- 2. Climb that mountain or chill in the barcalounger ?
- 3. No one on the team imagined a single antarctic mountain could house so many wonders .
- 4. China has been stockpiling a mountain of cotton , presumably to insulate its textile makers from shocks .
- 5. As an example of a green-on-green row , take one in maine , where environmentalists squabble over plans to expand a wind farm on the wilderness of kibby mountain .