Edge, Eminence, Fell, Grade: Origins, Forms, 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: edge, elevation, eminence, fell, grade, and gradient. 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.

Edge
Modern English edge comes from Middle English edge (15th century) and egge (13th century), from Old English ecg (before 1100).

The earliest uses of the word referred to a cutting edge, later to things resembling a cutting edge.

Two of those extended meanings pertain to topography: the crest of a ridge of hills (c. 1325) and the brink or ridge of a precipice (c. 1325).

Elevation
Modern English elevation comes from Middle English elevacioun (14th century), which goes back through several Latin forms to elevare ("to raise up").

Elevation has been used in many different senses relating to height or to something that is elevated.

One of those meanings pertains to topography: an area of raised land, a hill (1695).

Eminence
Modern English eminence goes back through Middle English eminence (15th century) and Middle French eminence to Latin forms based on eminere ("to stand out"). The Latin verb is akin to mont-, a combining form of mons ("mountain").

Eminence has had many different meanings relating to a person, thing, or position of prominence.

One of those senses pertains to topography: a natural elevation, a piece of high ground (1670).

Fell
Fell entered Middle English near the turn of the 14th century as a borrowing from Old Norse fell, fjall ("mountain"), which is akin to Old High German felis ("rock").

Fell developed two principal meanings.

(1) A hill or mountain (before 1300). This sense is now obsolete except in the names of some hills in northwest England, such as Bow Fell.

(2) A high barren field or hill moor (before 1300). This sense is now dialectal in northern England and parts of Scotland.

Grade
Grade entered English in the 16th century as a borrowing from French grade, which goes back to Latin gradus ("step, degree"), from gradi ("to step, go").

Grade has been used in various senses relating to steps or degrees.

Two of those meanings pertain to topography: the degree of inclination of a slope (1835) and a sloping road (1850).

Gradient
Gradient entered English in the 17th century from Latin gradient-, a combining form of gradiens, the present participle of gradi ("to step, go").

Gradient was originally an adjective used in reference to the steps, or walking, of animals.

Later, perhaps (according to the Oxford English Dictionary) as a new formation modeled after quotient, the word developed the same two topographical meanings as grade: the degree of inclination of a slope (1835) and a sloping road (1864).
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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.