Etymology

glacier mouse

Today it means: A ball of moss, often surrounding a rock, that moves across a glacier. Full definition →

Icelandic jökla-mýs
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The story

  1. Icelandic · calque ofjökla-mýs
  2. English todayglacier mouse

Calque of Icelandic jökla-mýs. Coined by geologist Jón Eythórsson in 1950. The Icelandic term appears only in plural form.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.