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Mount Everest

Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

1856[1][2] mount +‎ Everest. Originally proposed as Mont Everest by Andrew Waugh, the British Surveyor General of India, in a letter of 1 March 1856, and named after his predecessor George Everest. (Can this(+) etymology be sourced?)

Proper noun edit

Mount Everest (countable and uncountable, plural Mount Everests)

  1. (uncountable) A mountain in the Himalayas, on the border of Solukhumbu district, Koshi, Nepal and Tingri County, Shigatse, Tibet Autonomous Region, China; the world’s highest mountain.
    • 1856 October 15, “Science and Inventions”, in The Critic, London Literary Journal[3], volume XV, number 373, →OCLC, page 500, column 3; republished as “Geology”, in David A. Wells, editor, The Annual of Scientific Discovery: or, Year-book of Facts in Science and Art for 1857[4], Boston: Gould and Lincoln, 1857, →OCLC, page 306:
      It appears from a late survey made of the Himalaya range, by Colonel Waugh, that the Khanchinjinga, which has been hitherto supposed to be the highest summit, is in fact not so—a higher mountain having been discovered, situated between Katamandoo and Khanchinjinga. This last named is 28,156 feet above the level of the sea; but the new summit reaches the enormous height of 29,002 feet. It has been proposed to call this Mount Everest, after a former Surveyor-General of India.
    • [1857 May 11 [1856 March 1], A. S. Waugh, Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of London, page 346:
      In virtue of this privilege, in testimony of my affectionate respect for a revered chief, in conformity with what I believe to be the wish of all the Members of the scientific department, over which I have the honour to preside, and to perpetuate the memory of that illustrious master of accurate geographical research, I have determined to name this noble peak of the Himalayas ‘ Mont Everest.’ []
      As it will be interesting to you to see the independent results for all our observations to this mountain, and to contrast them with those of other celebrated peaks, I herewith append an attested statement of the geographical positions and elevations of Dwalagiri, Mont Everest, Kunchinginga, and Choomalari.
      You will perceive that the results are all satisfactorily accordant. In the case of Mont Everest the accordance of the independent heights is closer than could have been anticipated, because the mountain, though lofty and massive, is not a sharp well-defined peak and was observed from great distances.
      ]
    • 1858, Edward Thornton, “Everest Mount”, in A Gazetteer of the Territories under the Government of the East-India Company, and the Native States on the Continent of India[5], London: Wm. H. Allen & Co., →OCLC, page 306, column 1:
      EVEREST MOUNT.—A mountain of the Himalaya range, situate between the mountain of Kinchingunga, in Sikkim, and the city of Khatmandoo, in Nepaul, and presumed to be the loftiest summit in the world. Its elevation is 29,002 feet above the level of the sea. The highest summit of the Andes is Sorata, having an elevation of 25,267 feet. Mount Everest is reported to have been recently discovered by Colonel Waugh, and to have been named in compliment to the late surveyor-general of India.
    • 1860 July 21, George Gilfillan, quotee, “Alpha and Omega”, in The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science, and Art[6], volume 10, number 247, →OCLC, page 87, column 2:
      But narrative, after all, is Mr. Gilfillan’s forte, and his picture of the flood is a masterpiece. First, we have the march of the animals — lions and tigers, “the solemn elephants,” the hyena, “horrible even in its transient tameness,” “the fox and lamb embracing each other” — “thick streams of reptile existence, from the serpent to the scorpion, from the boa-constrictor to the lizard, wriggling on their ark-ward way” — “overhead flights of birds, here all oracular of doom—the earnest eagle, the gloom-glowing raven, the reluctant vulture,” sweeping to their destined home. Then, we have mountains submerged and volcanoes extinguished, “Ben Nevis sunk fathoms and fathoms more beneath the waves” — “the eye of Mount Blanc darkened, Old Taurus blotted out,” the tide “rolling over the summit of Mount Everest, and violating its last particle of virgin snow” — and lastly, “some human scenes of extraordinary interest,” which Mr. Gilfillan descries amidst the surrounding confusion.
    • 1863, Fordyce A. Allen, “Asia”, in A Primary Geography on the Basis of the Object Method of Instruction[7], 3rd edition, J. B. Lippincott & Co., →OCLC, page 45:
      The mountains of Asia are the loftiest in the world. Mount Everest, one of the Himalayas, is more than five and one-half miles high,—a mile higher than Mount Tupungato!
    • 1870, James Orton, chapter VIII, in The Andes and the Amazon: or, Across the Continent of South America[8], New York: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 131:
      Chimborazo was long supposed to be the tallest mountain on the globe, but its supremacy has been supplanted by Mount Everest in Asia, and Aconcagua in Chile.†
      Mount Everest is 29,000 feet, and Aconcagua 23,200. Schlagintweit enumerates thirteen Himalayan summits over 25,000 feet, and forty-six above 20,000.
    • 1892 October, Clinton T. Dent, “Can Mount Everest Be Ascended?”, in The Nineteenth Century[9], volume XXXII, number 188, page 605:
      Although the real elevation, and even the geographical position, of even the highest mountain in the world are quite uncertain, it may be assumed that the goal lies somewhere near the northern frontier of Nepal, very probably north of the summit recognised by surveyors as Mount Everest, and that the height is at least 29,000 to 30,000 feet.
    • 1931 April, Francis Younghusband, “Preface”, in The Epic of Mount Everest[10], London: Edward Arnold & Co., →OCLC, →OL, page 5:
      The years have gone by and still we know not whether or no Mallory and Irvine reached the summit. But the will to climb Mount Everest is still alive.
    • 1962, Edmund Hillary, Desmond Doig, “Into the Mingbo Valley”, in High in the Thin Cold Air: The Story of the Himalayan Expedition, led by Sir Edmund Hillary, sponsored by World Book Encyclopedia[11], Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 129:
      Our investigations were carried out almost exclusively among the Sherpa people living within thirty miles of Mount Everest. Tracks and sightings of the Yeti have been reported over a much wider area than this, but a large proportion of the more tangible evidence used in support of the Yeti theory comes from the region we examined.
    • 1989 December 30, P.V. Bole, “Introduction”, in 100 Himalayan Flowers[12], New York: The Vendome Press, published 1991, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 8:
      This abode of snow is the loftiest mountain range on earth. Its highest peak is the mighty Mount Everest. The Himalayas extend from Afghanistan in the east up to south-east Tibet, a distance of over 2,400 km in length and 250 to 400 km in breadth.
    • 2020 December 8, Ankit Adhikari, Joanna Slater, “It’s official: Mount Everest just got a little bit higher”, in The Washington Post[13], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-12-08, Asia & Pacific‎[14]:
      Nepal and China, the two countries that share a border on Mount Everest, announced a new official measurement of the mountain’s height on Tuesday: 8,848.86 meters, or 29,031.69 feet.
    • 2023 January 31, Bhadra Sharma, Adam Skolnick, “The Queen of Everest Trains While Working at Whole Foods”, in The New York Times[15], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 31 January 2023, Sports‎[16]:
      Lhakpa Sherpa has climbed Mount Everest 10 times, the most ascents ever by a woman. She has no plans of slowing down.
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Mount Everest.
  2. (figurative, countable) Epitome, ultimate; an endeavor that is very demanding yet rewarding.
    • 1882, Jules Verne, “Rough Travelling”, in Dick Sand The Boy Captain[17], volume II, Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, →OCLC, page 241:
      But the travellers were secure in their shelter, and had nothing to fear for the present ; their tenement was of greater stability than a tent or a native hut. It was one of those marvellous structures erected by little insects, which to Cameron appeared even more wonderful than the upraising of the Egyptian pyramids by human hands. To use his own comparison, it might be likened to the construction of a Mount Everest, the loftiest of the Himalayan peaks, by the united labour of a nation.
    • 1907, Edmund Gosse, “The Age of Elizabeth 1560-1610”, in A Short History of Modern English Literature[18], William Heinemann, →OCLC, page 104:
      We stand on the colossal peak of King Lear, with Othello on our right hand and Macbeth on our left, the sublime masses of Elizabethan mountain country rolling on every side of us, yet plainly dominated by the extraordinary central cluster of aiguilles on which we have planted ourselves. This triple summit of the later tragedies of Shakespeare forms the Mount Everest of the poetry of the world.
    • 1958, Rudolf Flesch, “How to Write Like a Pro”, in A New Way to Better English[19], Garden City, NY: Dolphin Books, →OCLC, page 102:
      After this rather tricky problem let's climb the Mount Everest of all writing problems. I mean, of course, the world-famous, forbidding peak of U.S. income-tax prose.
    • 1983, Al McGuire, “Foreword”, in They Were Number One: A History of the NCAA Basketball Tournament[20], Leisure Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 13:
      Personally, as a coach, I always considered the NCAA Tournament to be the Mount Everest of basketball. Just to be asked to climb it was a compliment.
    • 2010 January 17, Claire Sawers, “A journey from ballroom to battlefield”, in The Times[21], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 9 July 2021[22]:
      War and Peace is often seen as the Mount Everest of novels. A daunting door-stopper of a tome, at almost 1,500 pages, it is rarely finished.
    • 2011, Max Davidson, “Dean Jones: 'Get Me a Real Australian'”, in Fields of Courage: The Bravest Chapters in Sport[23], Little, Brown Book Group, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 95:
      ‘I lost seven kilos in the heat, but I needed to do it. I had to put myself through the wall to get where I needed to be. This was my Mount Everest. I had to climb it to prove to myself that I could compete at this level. But by gee, it was bloody hard work.’
    • 2012 June 21, Michael Dirda, “Library of Congress issues list of “Books That Shaped America””, in The Washington Post[24], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 06 June 2014, Style:
      Most great book lists concentrate on works of the highest literary or scholarly merit. Think of the Harvard Classics, Harold Bloom’s “Western Canon,” the Modern Library’s selection of “the 100 best novels of the 20th century.” Here, the compilers imply, are our cultural masterpieces, the Mount Everests and K2s all literate people should scale in their lifetime.
    • 2015, Kelly McGonigal, “A Meaningful Life Is a Stressful Life”, in The Upside of Stress: Why Stress is Good for You (and How to Get Good at It)[25], Ebury Publishing, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 86:
      Two weeks later, Crum was lying awake in bed when his comment came back to her. “If you were climbing Everest, you can imagine it would be cold, and there'd be some nights it would be dark, and you'd be tired,” Crum thought. “You'd be pretty miserable. But what did you expect? You're climbing Everest.” At that time in her life, finishing her dissertation was her Mount Everest. She wasn’t sure she would succeed. But that challenge was important enough to be worth weathering a few cold, dark nights.
    • 2017, Salazar, David (interview with Russell Thomas), Q & A: Tenor Russell Thomas on His First ‘Otello’ & Historic Met ‘Bohème’, OperaWire (October 4, 2017):
      OW: Many see it as the Mount Everest of tenor roles. What made you feel ready to take it on at this moment in your life? And why with ASO?
      RT: It definitely is the Mount Everest of tenor roles!!
    • 2018 April 12, Tim Carman, “Can a chile pepper really cause an ‘incapacitating’ headache?”, in The Washington Post:
      To people of a certain disposition — thrill-seekers, daredevils, folks who never want to taste their food again — the Carolina Reaper is the Mount Everest of foodstuffs. It must be conquered.
    • 2021 October 4, Patricia Leigh Brown, “Oyster Shoreline at ‘Greater New York’ Has a Pearl of a Message”, in The New York Times[26], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 04 October 2021, Art & Design‎[27]:
      To get to Newtown Creek, a severely polluted New York City waterway and Superfund site once teeming with oyster beds, the Mohawk artist Alan Michelson wended his way past the detritus of industrial Queens — the garbage haulers, the taco truck parking lots, the Mount Everests of scrap metal and building debris being clawed by construction cranes.
    • 2023 February 20, Bob Wisener, “Steve Asmussen reaches 10,000 win mark at Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort”, in Arkansas Democrat-Gazette[28], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 20 February 2023[29]:
      Steve Asmussen reached the Mount Everest of horse racing Monday with his North American record 10,000th victory as a professional trainer.
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Mount Everest.

Synonyms edit

Derived terms edit

Translations edit

References edit

  1. ^ Walker, J. T. (February 1886), “Notes on Mont Everest”, in Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society and Monthly Record of Geography[1], volume 8, issue 2, →DOI, page 88
  2. ^ cf. Leon E. Seltzer, editor (1952), “Everest, Mount”, in The Columbia Lippincott Gazetteer of the World[2], Morningside Heights, NY: Columbia University Press, →OCLC, page 596, column 1: “First observed 1849 by trigonometrical survey of India and named (c. 1855) for a former surveyor-general (1830-43), Sir George Everest; []

Further reading edit

Polish edit

 
Polish Wikipedia has an article on:
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Etymology edit

Borrowed from English Mount Everest.

Pronunciation edit

  • IPA(key): /ˈmɔnt ˈɛ.vɛ.rɛst/, (hyperforeign) /ˈmawnt ˈɛ.vɛ.rɛst/
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛrɛst

Proper noun edit

Mount Everest m inan

  1. Mount Everest (a mountain in Himalayas, the world’s highest mountain)
    Synonym: Czomolungma

Declension edit

Further reading edit