karst

See also: Karst, kärṣt-, and kärst-

English

WOTD – 18 January 2010

Etymology

Borrowed from German Karst. The German term and the Slovene placename Kras (the Karst Plateau) are from Proto-Slavic *korsъ, from Italo-Dalmatian carsus (cf. Italian carso), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *ker- (“hard; rock”). More at Karst.

The metathesis in the Slovene term precludes German borrowing from Slovene.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: käst, IPA^(key): /kɑːst/
• (General American) enPR: kärst, IPA^(key): /kɑɹst/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)st

  Homophones: cast, caste (non-rhotic, trap–bath split)

Noun

karst (plural karsts)

1. (geology) A type of land formation, usually with many caves formed through the dissolving of limestone by underground drainage.
   • 1978, M. M. Sweeting, “The Karst of Kweilin, Southern China”, in The Geographical Journal, volume 144, number 2, page 200:

     In the time available to us on our geomorphological tour we were not able to see the higher and younger karsts of Kweichow and Yunnan and Kunming.

   • 2009 May 29, “Katherine Harmon”, in Top 10 New Species Discovered in 2008‎^{[ScientificAmerican.com]}:

     The shells are just 0.04 inch (one millimeter) long and were found on a karst formation where conditions are damp, but the snails that inhabit them have yet to be observed.

Derived terms

• karst spring
• karstic
• karstology
• thermokarst
• glaciokarst
• paleokarst

Translations

type of land formation

• Aragonese: karst
• Armenian: կարստ (hy) (karst)
• Azerbaijani: karst
• Belarusian: карст (karst)
• Bulgarian: карст (karst)
• Catalan: carst (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 巖溶 / 岩溶 (ngaam⁴ jung⁴)

  Mandarin: 岩溶 (zh) (yánróng), 喀斯特 (zh) (kāsītè)

• Czech: kras (cs) m
• Dutch: karst (nl) m
• Esperanto: karsto
• Finnish: karsti (fi)
• French: karst (fr) m
• German: Karst (de) m
• Hungarian: karszt (hu)
• Icelandic: karst n
• Irish: carst m, boireann f
• Italian: carso (it) m
• Japanese: カルスト (karusuto)
• Khmer: please add this translation if you can
• Lao: please add this translation if you can
• Macedonian: карст m (karst)
• Norwegian: karstlandskap n
• Polish: kras (pl) m
• Portuguese: carso m, carste m
• Russian: карст (ru) m (karst)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: кр̏ш m, кра̏с m, ка̏рст m

  Roman: kȑš (sh) m, krȁs (sh) m, kȁrst (sh) m

• Slovene: krás (sl) m
• Spanish: karst m, malpaís m
• Tagalog: karst
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Vietnamese: các-xtơ, các-tơ
• Welsh: carst m

Further reading

• karst on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Stark, Trask, karts, skart, stark

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from German Karst.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɑrst/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: karst
• Rhymes: -ɑrst

Noun

karst m (plural karsten)

1. (geology) karst (terrain with caves formed by limestone dissolution by underground drainage)

Derived terms

• karstbron

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kaʁst/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

karst m (plural karsts)

1. (geology) karst

Further reading

• “karst”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Icelandic

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kʰar̥st/
• Rhymes: -ar̥st

Noun

karst n (genitive singular karsts, no plural)

1. (geology) karst

Declension

Declension of karst (sg-only neuter)

	singular
	indefinite	definite
nominative	karst	karstið
accusative	karst	karstið
dative	karsti	karstinu
genitive	karsts	karstsins

Old High German

Alternative forms

• carsc, kars

Etymology

Unknown; perhaps from a Proto-West Germanic *karsk, *karst related to keren (“to sweep”), from Proto-Germanic *karjaną.

Noun

karst m

1. mattock, hoe

Declension

Declension of karst (masculine a-stem)

case	singular	plural
nominative	karst	karsta
accusative	karst	karsta
genitive	karstes	karsto
dative	karste	karstum
instrumental	karstu	—

Descendants

• Middle High German: karst
  • Alemannic German: Charst
  • Central Franconian: Kaasch, Kaascht

    Hunsrik: Kaarscht

    Moselle Franconian: Koascht

  • German: Karst
  • Luxembourgish: Kaascht
  • Rhine Franconian: Kaarsch, Kaarscht

    Palatine German: Kaarsch, Kaarscht

  • East Franconian: Koascht, Koaschd

Spanish

Alternative forms

• carst

Etymology

Borrowed from German der Karst, name of a limestone region in Slovenia.

Noun

karst m (plural karstes)

1. (geology) karst

   Synonym: malpaís

Further reading

• “karst”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10