Hill, How, Hummock, Hurst: 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: hill, hillock, how, hummock, hump, hurst, and related words. 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.

Hill
Modern English hill comes from Middle English hill (13th century), from Old English hyll (before 1100). The word is akin to Latin collis ("hill").

In Old English, hill originally denoted any natural elevation of land rising fairly steeply above the level of the surrounding ground. It was a general term, referring to all sizes of elevations.

However, beginning in the 13th century, the word mountain gradually supplanted hill in references to higher elevations, with hill being used for lower heights. That basic distinction still prevails, with local variations in interpretation (in a level region, for example, a certain height may be regarded as a mountain, while the same height in a mountainous region may be termed merely a hill).

Hill has also come to mean an artificial mound of earth created by humans or animals (13th century) or the slope of a hill (18th century).

Many compound words have developed from hill, including at least four that are still widely used: hillcrest, hillside, hillslope, and hilltop.

Hillcrest. The top line of a hill (c. 1898).

Hillside. The sloping part of a hill between the top and the foot (14th century).

Hillslope. Same as hillside (1872).

Hilltop. The highest part of a hill (15th century).

Hillock
Hillock evolved in the 14th century from hill plus the diminutive suffix -ock (at first, -oc and -ok). It denotes a small hill.

How
The hill-related noun how entered Middle English in the 14th century as an adaptation of Old Norse haugr ("hill"), which is akin to Old Norse har ("high").

Originally the word was in general use, and it developed two basic meanings: a hill or hillock (before 1340) and an artificial mound, such as a barrow (1669). Today the word is found almost exclusively in local place-names in northern England.

Hummock
Hummock (17th century) evolved as a varied spelling of the earlier hill-related word hammock (16th century), whose origin is uncertain. The two spellings are still interchangeable.

Originally the word was a name that mariners gave to a prominent hillock on a seacoast (1555). The word still has wide general use in denoting any knoll or hillock.

However, hummock also developed many extensions of that meaning. At least two of them are still important topographical terms.

(1) In the southern United States, especially Florida, a piece of elevated land, often a swamp or marsh, that has hardwood vegetation and humus-rich soil (1765). The local form for this sense of the word is usually hammock.

(2) A ridge of ice (1818).

Hump
Hump entered English in the early 18th century. Its exact origin is uncertain, but it is akin to Middle Low German hump ("bump").

The first sense of the word was a rounded protuberance on a person's back (1709).

Later the word was transferred to denote a protuberant part of earth or rock, that is, a mound, hummock, or mountain range (1838).

Hurst
Modern English hurst comes from Middle English hurst (13th century), from Old English hyrst (before 1100). The word is akin to Old High German hurst ("thicket").

Hurst has two primary meanings, both going all the way back to the Old English period.

(1) A grove on elevated ground or a wooded knoll (9th century). This sense of the word is often found in place-names, such as Amherst and Elmhurst.

(2) A bank or piece of rising ground, especially a sandbank in a river (before 1000).
_____________________________

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.