Bluff, Knob, Precipice, Rock: 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.

Hills 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: bluff, esker, knob, precipice, rock, and steep. 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.

Bluff
The topographical noun bluff (17th century) comes from the adjective bluff ("having a broad, flat front," 17th century), from the obsolete Dutch blaf ("flat"). The word is akin to Middle Low German blaff ("smooth").

A high, steep cliff, especially with a broad, flat front, is a bluff (1666).

Esker
Esker comes from Irish eiscir ("ridge").

An esker is a long, narrow, often flat-topped mound of sand, gravel, and boulders formed by a stream associated with a stagnate glacier (1848).

Knob
Modern English knob (16th century) comes from Middle English knobbe (14th century). The word is akin to Middle Low German knubbe ("knob").

The original meaning of knob is a rounded protuberance.

A rounded, usually isolated hill or mountain is a knob (1650).

Precipice
Precipice entered English in the 16th century from Middle French precipice, which comes from Latin praecipitium, based on praecipit-, a combining form of praeceps ("headlong, steep, precipitous"), from prae- ("pre-") plus caput ("head").

The now-obsolete original meaning of precipice is a precipitate, or headlong, fall from a great height.

A sharply sloping, vertical, or overhanging cliff, crag, or similar natural feature of great height is a precipice (1632).

Rock
Modern English rock comes from Middle English rock (14th century) and rokke (14th century), from Old North French roque. The earlier history of the word is uncertain, but Old North French roque is believed to come from the assumed Vulgar Latin word rocca, probably of non-Indo-European origin.

A usually bare hill, cliff, peak, or promontory formed of a large mass of stone is a rock (14th century). A famous example of the word used in this way is the Rock of Gibraltar, the name of a mountain in the British colony of Gibraltar.

Steep
The noun steep (16th century) comes from the adjective steep ("having a sharp incline"), which goes back through Middle English stepe (13th century) to Old English steap (before 1100). The word is akin to Middle High German stief ("steep").

A sharply sloping, precipitous side of a hill, mountain, or cliff is a steep (1555).
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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.