hummock

noun

hum·mock ˈhə-mək

Synonyms of hummock

: a rounded knoll or hillock

: a ridge of ice

: hammock entry 2 sense 2

hummock verb

hummocky

ˈhə-mə-kē

adjective

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Where did hummock come from?

Having trouble telling a hummock from a hammock from a hillock? Not to worry: all three words refer to a small hill or earthen mound. Hummock, in fact, is an alteration of hammock; this 16th century pair share an ancestor with the Middle Low German words hummel (“small height”) and hump (“bump”), the latter of which is also a distant relative of our English word hump. As for the 14th-century vintage hillock, a version of the suffix -ock has been attached to nouns to designate a small one of whatever since the days of Old English. Note that the hilly hammock mentioned here is not related to the hammock offering a swaying repose between supports. That hammock comes from the Spanish hamaca, and ultimately from Taino, a language spoken by the original inhabitants of the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas.

Examples of hummock in a Sentence

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Craters pitted the earth; hummocks rose and fell; downed trees jutted from slash heaps like the spars of shipwrecks. —Ben Goldfarb, Smithsonian Magazine, 13 Feb. 2024 On that June evening, as the sun set, throwing billows of magenta clouds in the western sky, Heckscher saw ferns, grass-like sedges and hummocks of mosses, all signs of a healthy wetland. —Madeline Bodin, Smithsonian Magazine, 17 May 2023