montane
/mɑnˈteɪn/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.30 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Of, inhabiting, or growing in mountain areas; specifically, the cool, moist upland slopes below the timberline.
Example Sentences
- "This plant evidently occupies, like V. sabulosa and V. Curtisii, an intermediate position between lutea and tricolor; and, as I have indicated already, it is a montane, not an agrestal plant. Jordan compares it to V. vivariensis, which is also a montane plant, between V. tricolor and V. lutea."
- "[T]he upper part of these peaks is very bare and monotonous, and almost destitute of damp precipice; and I know of only seven Montane species that grow there above 650 yards."
- "With a like lower limit of level there are found on hills numerous Sub-alpine or Montane plants, which do not grow in the North. We must therefore divide the Northern zone also into three parts—1, Northern (restricted); 2, Northern-montane; and 3, Montane only."
- "The montane region in its lower belts has, at the equator, a still tropical although not equatorial character, but near the two tropics it has from the first a temperate character. The difference between the equatorial rain-forest of the basal region on the one hand, and the tropical forest of the lower montane region on the other, is confined to the systematic composition. In temperate montane formations, on the contrary, the lower temperature is reflected in purely oecological characteristics in the plant-life and impresses upon the formations the stamp of those of higher latitudes."
- "The temperatures are extremely constant and low as compared with those in the lowlands, although very rarely so low as to make frost possible, and the rainfall is abundant at all seasons. The Blue Mountain Region is, therefore, a tropical montane region, in the terms of [Andreas Franz Wilhelm] Schimper, lying above the hot lowlands and not attaining to a sufficient altitude for alpine influences to come into full play."
- "I[ndri] indri is a forest species, found in humid montane rain forest [...]. It has been observed as high as 1,300 m elevation [...]."
Etymology
The adjective is derived from Latin montānus (“of or pertaining to a mountain”). Synchronically, it can be seen to have the suffix English -ane (variant of -an (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives)). Montānus is derived from mōns (“mount, mountain”) (from Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to stand out, to tower”)) + -ānus (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’). The noun is probably derived from the adjective.
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /mɑnˈteɪn/
- British English: /ˈmɒnteɪn/