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Where did hummock come from?
Having trouble telling a hummock from a hammock from a hillock? Not to worry: all three words refer to a small hill or earthen mound. Hummock, in fact, is an alteration of hammock; this 16th century pair share an ancestor with the Middle Low German words hummel (“small height”) and hump (“bump”), the latter of which is also a distant relative of our English word hump. As for the 14th-century vintage hillock, a version of the suffix -ock has been attached to nouns to designate a small one of whatever since the days of Old English. Note that the hilly hammock mentioned here is not related to the hammock offering a swaying repose between supports. That hammock comes from the Spanish hamaca, and ultimately from Taino, a language spoken by the original inhabitants of the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas.
Examples of hummock in a Sentence
Ben Goldfarb, Smithsonian Magazine, 13 Feb. 2024
On that June evening, as the sun set, throwing billows of magenta clouds in the western sky, Heckscher saw ferns, grass-like sedges and hummocks of mosses, all signs of a healthy wetland.
—Madeline Bodin, Smithsonian Magazine, 17 May 2023
There, in a tangle of roots, dead wood and grass on a hummock about the size of a pitcher's mound, coiled a 2-foot-long snake.
—Paul A. Smith, Journal Sentinel, 14 Aug. 2022
Its hummock was part of a wetland spiked with tamarack saplings and carpeted with wild cranberries.
—Paul A. Smith, Journal Sentinel, 14 Aug. 2022
Like a swarm of rattlesnakes trying to escape their den, the first rat launches itself off the hummock toward the safety of the Roseau cane, revealing five or six others beneath.
—Gerry Bethge, Outdoor Life, 21 Apr. 2020
The SoHo townhouse is packed with hummocks of clothes and sundry stuff, much of it to be donated to charity.
—Karen Heller, Washington Post, 23 Sep. 2019
Now the potholed muddy track meandering among the hummocks barely resembles a road.
—Neil MacFarquhar, New York Times, 4 Aug. 2019
As the permafrost thaws across Yakutia, some land sinks, transforming the terrain into an obstacle course of hummocks and craters — called thermokarst.
—Neil MacFarquhar, New York Times, 4 Aug. 2019
Dictionary Entries Near hummock
Cite this Entry
“Hummock.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hummock. Accessed 21 Dec. 2024.
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