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  1. nunatak love

Definitions

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A crest or ridge of rock appearing above the surface of the inland ice in Greenland.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A mountain top or rocky element of a ridge that is surrounded by glacial ice but is not covered by ice; a peak protruding from the surface ice sheet.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. In Greenland, an insular hill or mountain surrounded by an ice sheet.

Etymologies

  1. From Greenlandic nunataq. (Wiktionary)

Examples

  • “At Merger, a "nunatak" or rocky peak sticking out of the ice, the only evidence of a visit by U.S. scientists in 1975 is a tiny metal stake covered by a pile of rocks.”

    Reuters: Top News

  • “Peggy said ... nunatak: I believe that the issue of monomaniacalness (if that's a word) is really central to the issue of making the culture of science more welcoming to women.”

    Christiane Nusslein-Volhard, Sexism and Stereotypes

  • “Data Not Shown is a new science blog by UK postdoc Karen James (aka nunatak).”

    Added to the Blogroll

  • “Peggy said ... nunatak: I'll keep an eye on the SciFri blogs”

    Added to the Blogroll

  • “One of us, in any case, found immense enjoyment in rolling one big block after another down the steep slopes of the nunatak.”

    The South Pole~ The Eastern Sledge Journey

  • “We very soon put our things together, and came down the nunatak even more quickly.”

    The South Pole~ The Eastern Sledge Journey

  • “But in one place a nunatak about 250 feet high stood out in front of the precipice, and the ascent of this offered no great difficulty.”

    The South Pole~ The Eastern Sledge Journey

  • “I looked at the map and it should have been a nunatak, but the present ice margin was about 10 kilometers away.”

    Greenland Melting

  • “Sunday update: I woke up in the middle of the night last night thinking that I really ought to point out that the opinions expressed in this post belong to me, nunatak, and do not necessarily reflect those of fellow blogger Peter Mc or The Beagle Project.”

    The National Academy of Sciences weighs in on creationism

  • “I (nunatak) will be speaking on "Darwin the young explorer" at the Natural History Museum in the Nature Live venue (live stream here).”

    Beagle Projecteers go live on Darwin Day

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Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘nunatak’.

Comments

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  • yarb I guess it was taken there by people with experience of the north, BB. Dec 23, 2008

  • BrainyBabe If it is a word used in Antarctica, what is its connection to Inuktitut? Dec 23, 2008

  • qroqqa There's a place in Antarctica called the Whichaway Nunataks, which even as I child I considered deeply scary: lost in the wilds of Antarctica, nuns coming at you from every direction, ninja-like and polar-bear-like concealed under their camouflage twats, crevasses impeding your escape. Nov 22, 2008

  • dontcry I see a sea of billowing black muslin, tipped here and there with startched-stiff white cotton. I see dour, sunken faces and bony, liver-spotted talons grasping wooden rulers poised for rapping the hell out of sinful young knuckles.

    Ahhh, that felt good. May 24, 2008

  • littlestar Sounds like "Nun attack" - which brings to mind an awesome mental image of nunchuck-wielding, bad-ass ninja nuns (c: May 24, 2008

  • mollusque An isolated rock peak projecting above the surface of inland ice. Compare monadnock, rognon and pingo. Dec 31, 2007

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‘nunatak’ has been looked up 1709 times, loved by 3 people, added to 15 lists, commented on 6 times, and has a Scrabble score of 11.