Alp, Bench, Butte, Comb: Origins, Forms, and Histories of Words Meaning Hill or Slope

The natural features of a region are called its topography. The word comes from Greek topos ("place").

English speakers have a long history of inventing (or borrowing from other languages) all sorts of different names for related topographical features.

Hill and slopes, for example, are known by a wide range of words in English, each with its own unique story to tell.

In the alphabetically arranged presentation of such terms in the current series, the next words are these: alp, bench, butte, comb, and kame. Here is an overview of their origins, forms, and histories. The dates of first appearance of the forms and meanings are from the Oxford English Dictionary.

Alp
Alp (15th century) is a back-formation from Alps, the name of a famous mountain range in Europe. Alps itself comes from Latin Alpes. The original meaning of the word is uncertain, but some etymologists have theorized "high" (as in Gaelic alp, "a high mountain") and "white" (as in Latin albus, "white").

A high rugged mountain resembling those of the Alps is an alp (1598).

Bench
Modern English bench comes from Middle English bench (14th century), from Old English benc (before 1100). The word is akin to Old High German bank ("bench").

From its original meaning of a long flat seat, bench has developed many extended senses.

One topographical use of bench is basically synonymous with terrace and shelf: a raised stretch of ground with steeply sloping sides, hence one of the sloping sides (c. 1450).

A related meaning of bench is a raised flat surface artificially formed by human excavations, especially on multiple levels (1730).

Butte
Butte entered English in the early 19th century from French butte ("knoll, hillock"). The French word comes from Middle French bute ("mound of earth serving as backdrop for a target"), which is based on but ("target").

A butte is an isolated hill or mountain with steep sides, usually having a somewhat flattened summit (1805).

In 1845 the famous American explorer John C Frémont recorded the contemporary definition of the word butte: "It is applied to the detached hills and ridges which rise abruptly, and reach too high to be called hills or ridges, and not high enough to be called mountains" (Oxford English Dictionary).

Comb
Modern English comb comes from Middle English comb (14th century), from Old English camb (before 1100). The word is akin to Old High German kamb ("comb") and Greek gomphos ("tooth").

The basic meaning of comb is a toothed instrument, especially for hair care. The word has developed many extended senses denoting things that resemble a comb, such as the fleshy crest of a fowl.

In turn, a topographical feature that resembles the crest of a fowl, such as the ridge of a bank of earth, is a comb (c. 1250).

The same feature is known in northern England and Scottish dialect as a kame, from Scottish kame ("comb"), which, like comb, goes back to Old English camb.

Kame has also been adopted into standard English to denote a narrow ridge, hill, or mound consisting of stratified drift deposited by glacial meltwater (1795).
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Encyclopaedia Britannica Ready Reference 2004. CD-ROM. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2004.

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. 11th ed. Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 2006.

Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary. 3rd ed. Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 2007.

The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1989.