mountain
Definitions
General English
General Science
Agriculture
- noun a surplus or large amount of something, especially something that is being stored
Aviation
- noun a mass of rock rising above ground level, higher than a hill
Travel
- noun an area of very high land that often rises steeply to a sharp peak
Wine
- (written as Mountain)a former name for Málaga sweet fortified wine
Origin & History of “mountain”
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 (13th c.) comes ultimately from the Latin phrase ad montem ‘to the mountain’, hence ‘upwards’; and paramount (16th c.) in turn derives from an Old French phrase par amont ‘by above’, hence ‘superior’.
Amount (13th c.) comes ultimately from the Latin phrase ad montem ‘to the mountain’, hence ‘upwards’; and paramount (16th c.) in turn derives from an Old French phrase par amont ‘by above’, hence ‘superior’.
