A.Word.A.Day--esker

Wordsmith.org

The Magic of Words

Aug 11, 2010

This week's theme
Glacial landforms

This week's words
drumlin
moraine
esker

The Keptie Hills esker
Arbroath, Scotland

Photo: Stevie D.

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A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

esker

PRONUNCIATION:

(ES-kuhr)

MEANING:

noun: A long, narrow ridge of gravel and sand deposited by a stream flowing in or under a retreating glacier.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Irish eiscir (ridge of gravel).

USAGE:

"Skiing the moraine is always a seminar in geology, but this particular jumble of drumlins and eskers -- characteristic landforms left by restless glaciation -- puts it in a nutshell. My Grade 11 geography teacher likened an esker to the mess left by a drunk simultaneously walking backward and throwing up."
John Barber; Ski Country, Without the Traffic Jams; The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada); Dec 6, 2008.

Explore "esker" in the Visual Thesaurus.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Oh, threats of hell and hopes of paradise! / One thing at least is certain -- this life flies; / One thing is certain, and the rest is lies; / The flower that once has blown forever dies. -Omar Khayyam, poet, mathematician, philosopher, astronomer, and physician (1048-1131)

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