mount

Mount, to climb, and mount, a mountain, are different words, though both come from Latin mōns “mountain”.^[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

• IPA: /maʊnt/^[4]

mount¹ climb

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English mounten, borrowed from Old French monter (“to go up, climb”),^[1][2][3] from Vulgar Latin *montāre,^[1][2] from Latin mōns, montis “mountain”.^[1][2] It is related to amount, paramount and surmount.^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To get up on a horse: about 1300 in Etymonline, and to go up, ascend, before 1300 in Barnhart.^[1][2] To rise in amount, and to fly up, from the mid-14th century.^[1]

Semantic evolution

The transitive meaning “to set or place in position” is from the 1530s (1539 in Barnhart).^[1][2] Of male animals, to get up on for mating, is from the 1590s.^[1] To set up guns for defence is by 1706,^[1] to prepare a play or exhibition for presentation by 1712,^[1] and to mount an attack by 1943.^[1] The noun, an act of mounting, is from the late 15th century (1486),^[1][6] a support on which something is fixed from 1739,^[1][2] and a horse for riding by 1831 in sporting magazines.^[1][2] In Middle English the noun also meant an amount.^[6][5]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – to get on a horse.^[1]
• mid-14th century – to rise, ascend.^[1]
• 1486 – noun, an act of mounting.^[6]
• 1530s – to set in position.^[1]
• 1739 – noun, a support.^[1][2]
• 1831 – a horse for riding.^[1]
• 1943 – mount an attack.^[1]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To climb up something, or get on a horse or bicycle.
2. To organize and begin something: mount a campaign.
3. To increase gradually: mounting debts.
4. To fix something in position, as on a wall or in a frame.
5. To put on a play or exhibition.

Noun

1. A support or frame on which something is fixed.
2. A horse used for riding.

mount² mountain

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English mount, partly inherited from Old English munt and partly borrowed from Anglo-Norman mount, munt or Old French mont,^[1][2][3] both from Latin mōns (“mountain”),^[1][2] from Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to stand out, project”).^[1][2] It is related to mountain, eminent and promontory.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A mountain or lofty hill: about 893 in the OED.^[6][1]

Semantic evolution

From the 17th century it was used in prose chiefly of a fairly low conical hill rising from a plain,^[1][6] and by the late 19th century it was archaic or poetic except in proper names, such as Mount Everest.^[1][7] An earthwork for defence is from 1558, and an artificial mound from 1591.^[6] The Sermon on the Mount is in Matthew 5–7.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 893 – a mountain.^[6]
• 1558 – an earthwork.^[6]
• 1591 – a mound.^[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. (archaic, or in names) A mountain or high hill: Mount Etna.

Related words

• amount
• mountain
• paramount
• surmount
• promontory

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin