tundra

Etymology

It is borrowed from Russian тундра (túndra),^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} from Kildin Sami тӯндар (tūndar, “flat-topped hill”),^[4][1] through its accusative and genitive form тӯндрэ (tūndre).^[1] The OED and the Shorter Oxford take the English word directly from Sami.^[7][8] The Sami word is glossed variously as "flat-topped hill", "elevated wasteland", "flat elevated area" and "hill",^[4][2][9][6] and Weekley, Klein and Partridge explain it as a compound meaning "marsh plain".^[10][11][12] Collins and Merriam-Webster relate it to Finnish tunturi (“treeless arctic hill”).^[6][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English date the word to the late 16th century,^[8][13] and Weekley quotes Purchas: "[We] came to a playne called Correapin Tundra".^[10] As an ordinary noun, one of the vast, nearly level, treeless regions of northern Russia, it is first recorded in the Penny Cyclopaedia in 1841.^[7][2][3][5]

Semantic evolution

The OED's definition describes the Russian tundras as resembling the steppes farther south but with an arctic climate.^[7] The word was soon used of the whole treeless zone between the ice cap and the tree line in North America as well as Eurasia,^[6][5] defined by its permanently frozen subsoil and its low growth of mosses, lichens and shrubs,^[4][5] and it is also used of similar areas high in the mountains.^[4] Wiktionary also records a figurative use for a long, bleak stretch of something, such as time.^[1]

Timeline

• 1841 – a vast, nearly level, treeless arctic plain of northern Russia.^[7][2][3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A vast, nearly level, treeless region of the arctic and subarctic, with permanently frozen subsoil and a low growth of mosses, lichens and shrubs.^[4][6][5][7]
2. A similar treeless area above the timberline on high mountains.^[4]

Word family

• tundra swan

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ a b c d e Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
13. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press