Mount Everest
Language: English
Part of speech: name
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˌmaʊnt ˈɛv(ə)ɹɪst/
ipa: /ˌmaʊnt ˈɛv(ə)ɹəst/
Forms: form: Everest
form: Mt Everest
form: Mt. Everest
Etymology: From mount + Everest, coined by the British army officer and Surveyor General of India Andrew Scott Waugh (1810–1878)—originally as Mont Everest—in a paper of March 1, 1856 to the Royal Geographical Society, after his predecessor George Everest (1790–1866): see the quotation. The name Mount Everest was used in a paper on October 27, 1856 by the British naturalist Brian Houghton Hodgson (1800 or 1801 – 1894) and by Sir Roderick Impey Murchison (1792–1871), the President of the Society, at a meeting of the Society on May 11, 1857 at which the two papers were read.
Senses: examples: text: [T]he privilege, as well as the duty, devolves on me to assign to this lofty pinnacle of our globe, a name whereby it may be known among geographers and become a household word among civilized nations. In virtue of this privilege, in testimony of my affectionate respect for a revered chief, in conformity with what I believe to be the wish of all the Members of the scientific department, over which I have the honour to preside, and to perpetuate the memory of that illustrious master of accurate geographical research, I have determined to name this noble peak of the Himalayas ‘Mont Everest.’ […] In the case of Mont Everest the accordance of the independent heights is closer than could have been anticipated, because the mountain, though lofty and massive, is not a sharp well-defined peak and was observed from great distances.
ref: [1856 March 1, A[ndrew] S[cott] Waugh, “1. Papers Relating to the Himalaya and Mount Everest. A. By Lieutenant-Colonel A. S. Waugh, Surveyor-General of India, dated Dehra, March 1st, 1856; […]”, in Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of London, volume I, number IX, London: Edward Stanford, […] [for the Royal Geographical Society], published 11 May 1857, →OCLC, page 346:
text: It appears from a late survey made of the Himalaya range, by Colonel Waugh, that the Khanchinjinga, which has been hitherto supposed to be the highest summit, is, in fact, not so—a higher mountain having been discovered, situated between Katmandoo and Khanchinjinga. This last named is 28,156 feet above the level of the sea; but the new summit reaches the enormous height of 29,002 feet. It has been proposed to call this Mount Everest, after a former Surveyor-General of India.
ref: 1856 October 15, “Science and Inventions. The Fortnight.”, in The Critic, London Literary Journal, volume XV, number 373, London: John Crockford, →OCLC, page 500, column 3:
text: EVEREST MOUNT.—A mountain of the Himalaya range, situate between the mountain of Kinchingunga, in Sikkim, and the city of Khatmandoo, in Nepaul, and presumed to be the loftiest summit in the world. Its elevation is 29,002 feet above the level of the sea. The highest summit of the Andes is Sorata, having an elevation of 25,267 feet. Mount Everest is reported to have been recently discovered by Colonel Waugh, and to have been named in compliment to the late surveyor-general of India.
ref: 1857, Edward Thornton, “Everest Mount”, in A Gazetteer of the Territories under the Government of the East-India Company, and the Native States on the Continent of India. […], London: W[illia]m H[oughton] Allen & Co., […], →OCLC, page 306, column 1:
text: But narrative, after all, is Mr. Gilfillan's forte, and his picture of the flood is a masterpiece. […] Then, we have mountains submerged and volcanoes extinguished, "Ben Nevis sunk fathoms and fathoms more beneath the waves"—"the eye of Mount Blanc darkened, Old Taurus blotted out," the tide "rolling over the summit of Mount Everest, and violating its last particle of virgin snow"—and lastly, "some human scenes of extraordinary interest," which Mr. Gilfillan descries amidst the surrounding confusion.
ref: 1860 July 21, George Gilfillan, quotee, “Alpha and Omega [book review]”, in The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science, and Art, volume X, number 247, London: […] Spottiswoode and Co., […], →OCLC, page 87, column 2:
text: The mountains of Asia are the loftiest in the world. Mount Everest, one of the Himalayas, is more than five and one-half miles high,—a mile higher than Mount Tupungato!
ref: 1863, Fordyce A[lmon] Allen, “Asia. Lesson XLII.”, in A Primary Geography on the Basis of the Object Method of Instruction (Lippincott’s Geographical Series), 3rd edition, Philadelphia, Pa.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott & Co., →OCLC, page 45:
text: Chimborazo was long supposed to be the tallest mountain on the globe, but its supremacy has been supplanted by Mount Everest in Asia, and Aconcagua in Chile. [Footnote †: Mount Everest is 29,000 feet, and Aconcagua 23,200. [Hermann von] Schlagintweit enumerates thirteen Himalayan summits over 25,000 feet, and forty-six above 20,000.]
ref: 1870, James Orton, chapter VIII, in The Andes and the Amazon: or, Across the Continent of South America, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 131:
text: It was one of those termite cones that, according to Lieutenant Cameron's comparison, are more astonishing than the pyramids of Egypt, raised by the hands of men, because they have been built by such small insects. "It is," said he, "as if a nation had built Mount Everest, the highest mountain of the Himalaya chain."
ref: 1878, Jules Verne, “The Bad Roads of Angola”, in [anonymous], transl., Dick Sand; or, A Captain at Fifteen. […], New York, N.Y.: George Munro, […], →OCLC, part II, page 197:
text: Although the real elevation, and even the geographical position, of even the highest mountain in the world are quite uncertain, it may be assumed that the goal lies somewhere near the northern frontier of Nepal, very probably north of the summit recognised by surveyors as Mount Everest, and that the height is at least 29,000 to 30,000 feet.
ref: 1892 October, Clinton T[homas] Dent, “Can Mount Everest be Ascended?”, in James Knowles, editor, The Nineteenth Century: A Monthly Review, volume XXXII, number CLXXXVII, London: Sampson Law, Marston & Company […], →OCLC, page 605:
text: The years have gone by and still we know not whether or no [George] Mallory and [Andrew] Irvine reached the summit. But the will to climb Mount Everest is still alive.
ref: 1926 October, Francis Younghusband, “Preface”, in The Epic of Mount Everest, school edition, London: Edward Arnold & Co., published April 1931 (1933 printing), →OCLC, page 5:
text: Our investigations were carried out almost exclusively among the Sherpa people living within thirty miles of Mount Everest. Tracks and sightings of the Yeti have been reported over a much wider area than this, but a large proportion of the more tangible evidence used in support of the Yeti theory comes from the region we examined.
ref: 1962, Edmund Hillary, Desmond Doig, “Into the Mingbo Valley”, in High in the Thin Cold Air: The Story of the Himalayan Expedition, Led by Sir Edmund Hillary, […], Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, →OCLC, page 129:
text: This abode of snow is the loftiest mountain range on earth. Its highest peak is the mighty Mount Everest. The Himalayas extend from Afghanistan in the east up to south-east Tibet, a distance of over 2,400 km in length and 250 to 400 km in breadth.
ref: 1989 December 30, P[ritamial] V[ijoyshanker] Bole, “Introduction”, in 100 Himalayan Flowers, New York, N.Y.: The Vendome Press, published 1991, →ISBN, page 8:
text: Nepal and China, the two countries that share a border on Mount Everest, announced a new official measurement of the mountain’s height on Tuesday: 8,848.86 meters, or 29,031.69 feet.
ref: 2020 December 8, Ankit Adhikari, Joanna Slater, “It’s official: Mount Everest just got a little bit higher”, in The Washington Post (Asia & Pacific section), Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 08 Dec 2020:
text: Lhakpa Sherpa has climbed Mount Everest 10 times, the most ascents ever by a woman. She has no plans of slowing down.
ref: 2023 January 31, Bhadra Sharma, Adam Skolnick, “The Queen of Everest trains while working at whole foods”, in The New York Times (Sports section), New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 31 Jan 2023:
synonyms: Chu-mu-lang-ma
Chumulangma
Chomolungma
Chomolangma
Peak XV
Qomolangma
Qomolangma Feng
Sagarmatha
Zhumulangma
glosses: A mountain in the Himalayas, on the border of Solukhumbu district, Koshi, Nepal and Tingri County, Shigatse, Tibet Autonomous Region, China; the world's highest mountain above sea level.
Derived terms: Everester
Everest syndrome