The captain spotted a massive ____ floating in the cold ocean and avoided a collision.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The massive ____ was drifting slowly in the ocean, with most of its enormous size hidden below the surface.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *h₁eyH-
Proto-Indo-European *h₁eyH-so-der.
Proto-Germanic *īsą
Proto-West Germanic *īs
Old English īs
Middle English is
English ice
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Dutch ijsbergpcalq.
English iceberg
Partial calque of Dutch ijsberg (compound of ijs (“ice”) + berg (“mountain”)), from Middle Dutch ijsberch. First used to describe a glacier as seen at a distance from a ship then used as a term to describe the floating chunks of ice broken off from such glaciers. Cognate to German Eisberg, Danish isbjerg, Norwegian isberg and Swedish isberg. Figurative senses in reference to the fact that only one-tenth of an iceberg is usually visible above water.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Clissold the excellent cook, who should have gone with the motor party, tumbled off a small iceberg and concussed himself while posing or 'ponting' as it had come to be known- Griffith Taylor, with his usual wit, had defined 'to pont' as 'to spend a deuce of a time posing in an uncomfortable position'."
— 1997, Preston, Diana, Preston, Diana A first rate tragedy Constable, London: 160:
"The passengers still on board were keen to watch as Tessa's crew scrambled for their positions, and she heard jokes about icebergs and devil's triangles, and anxious childish queries answered by soothing adult tones."
— 2000, Michelle Jerott, A Great Catch, Avon Books, →ISBN:
"He has little to lose: at present he will go down in history, alongside George W. Bush, as a skipper who ignored the looming fiscal iceberg."
— 2013, “How Barack Obama can get at least some of his credibility back”, in The Economist: