Summit, Swell, Table, Terrace: 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: summit, swell, table, and terrace. 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.

Summit
Modern English summit (17th century) comes from Middle English somete (15th century), from Middle French and Old French somete. The French word is a diminutive of sum ("top"), which goes back to Latin summus ("highest").

The topmost point of a hill or a mountain is a summit (15th century).

Swell
The noun swell evolved in the 17th century from the verb swell, which goes back to Old English swellan (before 1100), akin to Old High German swellan ("to swell").

The noun swell developed many senses having to do with the condition of being swollen, including a cluster of distinctive topographical meanings: a piece of land rising (that is, swelling) gradually and evenly above the surrounding ground; a hill or upland with a rounded appearance; and simply any rising ground.

These senses of swell began in the 18th century. Originally the word was often used in a phrase, such as "swell of land," "swell of ground," and "swell of moorland."

Table
Modern English table comes from Middle English table (12th century), which derives from both Old English tabule (before 1100) and Old French table. The Old English and Old French words are based on Latin tabula ("board, tablet, list").

Topographically a table is a broad area of level, elevated land, that is, a plateau (1587). Sometimes the word refers to a flat mountaintop.

A synonymous term is tableland (1697).

Terrace
Terrace entered English in the 16th century from Middle French terrace ("pile of earth, platform, terrace"). The Middle French word goes back through Old Provençal terrassa and terra ("earth") to Latin terra ("earth, land").

Terrace has many platform-related meanings, including two senses that pertain to hills and slopes.

One sense of terrace is a raised embankment with one or more slopes and with the top artificially leveled for walking (16th century). The leveled surface is often built on naturally sloping ground, as on the bank of a river.

The other sense (17th century) is a natural formation similar to the constructed terrace, such as a level plain with a sharply sloping front bordering a body of water. Terrace is also used synonymously with table and tableland. A horizontal ridge (natural or constructed) on the side of a hill or other sloping ground is a terrace.
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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.