A.Word.A.Day --pingo

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Jul 14, 2009

This week's theme
Words from geology

This week's words
yardang
pingo
scree
inselberg
karst

A pingo near Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories, Canada

Photo: Emma Pike

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A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

pingo

PRONUNCIATION:

(PING-go)

MEANING:

noun: A mound or hill of soil-covered ice in permafrost, pushed up by the pressure of water seeping in.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Inuit pinguq/pingu (small hill).

USAGE:

"Out on the Arctic coastal plain below the northern foot of the Brooks, the land is dotted with pingoes a foot or two tall."
Craig Medred; River Dance on the Hulahula; Anchorage Daily News (Alaska); Jul 31, 2005.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Who breaks the thread, the one who pulls, the one who holds on? -James Richardson, poet, professor (b. 1950)

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