nunatak

See also: Nunatak and nunataĸ

English

WOTD – 8 February 2013

Starr Nunatak, on the coast of Victoria Land, Antarctica.

Cântaro Magro, Serra da Estrela, Portugal, formed as nunatak during the last ice age and now exposed.

Alternative forms

• nunataq

Etymology

Borrowed from Greenlandic nunataq.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈnʌn.ə.tæk/, /ˈnuː.nə.tæk/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Hyphenation: nun‧a‧tak

Noun

nunatak (plural nunataks or nunataker)

1. A mountain top or rocky element of a ridge that is surrounded by glacial ice but is not covered by ice; a peak protruding from the surface ice sheet. [from 1870s]
   • 1922, Apsley Cherry-Garrard, The Worst Journey in the World: Antarctic 1910-1913‎^[1], volume 2, Constable and Company Ltd., page 365:

     We made for a slope close to the end of the island or nunatak, where Shackleton must have got up also; it is obviously the only place when you look at it from a commanding rise.

   • 2008, Andrea M. J. Coronato, Fernando Coronato, Elizabeth Mazzoni, Miriam Vásquez, “The Physical Geography of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego”, in J. Rabassa, editor, The Late Cenozoic of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego‎^[2], Elsevier, →ISBN, page 45:

     Only a few lichens and mosses colonize the rocky walls of cirques and nunataks.

   • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage 2007, page 155:

     The peak in whose lee you have chosen to set up your command post is far too regular in shape to be the nunatak you imagine it.

Translations

mountaintop surrounded by glacial ice

• Danish: nunatak (da) c
• Faroese: jøkulfjall n
• Finnish: nunatak
• French: nunatak (fr) m
• German: Nunatak (de) m
• Greenlandic: nunataq
• Polish: nunatak (pl) m
• Russian: нуната́к (ru) m (nunaták)
• Slovak: nunatak m
• Welsh: nwnatac m

See also

• monadnock

Further reading

• nunatak on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Kuantan

Danish

Etymology

Greenlandic nunataq

Noun

nunatak

1. nunatak

Declension

Declension of nunatak

common gender	Singular		Plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	nunatak	nunatakken	nunatakker	nunatakkerne
genitive	nunataks	nunatakkens	nunatakkers	nunatakkernes

French

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

nunatak m (plural nunataks)

1. nunatak

Further reading

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

Polish

Etymology

Borrowed from Greenlandic nunataq.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nuˈna.tak/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -atak
• Syllabification: nu‧na‧tak

Noun

nunatak m inan

1. (geology) nunatak

Declension

Declension of nunatak

	singular	plural
nominative	nunatak	nunataki
genitive	nunataka/nunataku	nunataków
dative	nunatakowi	nunatakom
accusative	nunatak	nunataki
instrumental	nunatakiem	nunatakami
locative	nunataku	nunatakach
vocative	nunataku	nunataki

Further reading

• nunatak in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French nunatak.

Noun

nunatak n (plural nunatakuri)

1. nunatak

Declension

Declension of nunatak

	singular		plural
	indefinite articulation	definite articulation	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) nunatak	nunatakul	(niște) nunatakuri	nunatakurile
genitive/dative	(unui) nunatak	nunatakului	(unor) nunatakuri	nunatakurilor
vocative	nunatakule		nunatakurilor

References

• nunatak in Academia Română, Micul dicționar academic, ediția a II-a, Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic, 2010. →ISBN

Slovak

Etymology

Borrowed from Greenlandic nunataq.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈnunatak]

Noun

nunatak m inan (genitive singular nunataka, nominative plural nunataky, genitive plural nunatakov, declension pattern of dub)

1. nunatak

Declension

Declension of nunatak

	singular	plural
nominative	nunatak	nunataky
genitive	nunataka	nunatakov
dative	nunataku	nunatakom
accusative	nunatak	nunataky
locative	nunataku	nunatakoch
instrumental	nunatakom	nunatakmi

Further reading

• “nunatak”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2024

Swedish

Alternative forms

• nunatack

Etymology

From Greenlandic nunataq.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌnʉ̟ːnaˈtak/
• Rhymes: -ak

Noun

nunatak c

1. (geology) nunatak

Declension

Declension of nunatak

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	nunatak	nunataks
	definite	nunataken	nunatakens
plural	indefinite	nunataker	nunatakers
	definite	nunatakerna	nunatakernas

References

• nunatak in Svensk ordbok (SO)