Mount Everest

alternative Everest · alternative Mt Everest · alternative Mt. Everest

1. A mountain in the Himalayas, on the border of Solukhumbu district, Koshi, Nepal and Tingri County, Shigatse, Tibet Autonomous Region, China; the world's highest mountain above sea level.First known use 1856

   The mountains of Asia are the loftiest in the world. Mount Everest, one of the Himalayas, is more than five and one-half miles high,—a mile higher than Mount Tupungato!

   1863, Fordyce A[lmon] Allen, “Asia. Lesson XLII.”, in A Primary Geography on the Basis of the Object Method of Instruction (Lippincott’s Geographical Series), 3rd edition, Philadelphia, Pa.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott & Co., →OCLC, page 45

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   [T]he privilege, as well as the duty, devolves on me to assign to this lofty pinnacle of our globe, a name whereby it may be known among geographers and become a household word among civilized nations. In virtue of this privilege, in testimony of my affectionate respect for a revered chief, in conformity with what I believe to be the wish of all the Members of the scientific department, over which I have the honour to preside, and to perpetuate the memory of that illustrious master of accurate geographical research, I have determined to name this noble peak of the Himalayas ‘Mont Everest.’ […] In the case of Mont Everest the accordance of the independent heights is closer than could have been anticipated, because the mountain, though lofty and massive, is not a sharp well-defined peak and was observed from great distances.

   [1856 March 1, A[ndrew] S[cott] Waugh, “1. Papers Relating to the Himalaya and Mount Everest. A. By Lieutenant-Colonel A. S. Waugh, Surveyor-General of India, dated Dehra, March 1st, 1856; […]”, in Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of London, volume I, number IX, London: Edward Stanford, […] [for the Royal Geographical Society], published 11 May 1857, →OCLC, page 346

   It appears from a late survey made of the Himalaya range, by Colonel Waugh, that the Khanchinjinga, which has been hitherto supposed to be the highest summit, is, in fact, not so—a higher mountain having been discovered, situated between Katmandoo and Khanchinjinga. This last named is 28,156 feet above the level of the sea; but the new summit reaches the enormous height of 29,002 feet. It has been proposed to call this Mount Everest, after a former Surveyor-General of India.

   1856 October 15, “Science and Inventions. The Fortnight.”, in The Critic, London Literary Journal, volume XV, number 373, London: John Crockford, →OCLC, page 500, column 3

   EVEREST MOUNT.—A mountain of the Himalaya range, situate between the mountain of Kinchingunga, in Sikkim, and the city of Khatmandoo, in Nepaul, and presumed to be the loftiest summit in the world. Its elevation is 29,002 feet above the level of the sea. The highest summit of the Andes is Sorata, having an elevation of 25,267 feet. Mount Everest is reported to have been recently discovered by Colonel Waugh, and to have been named in compliment to the late surveyor-general of India.

   1857, Edward Thornton, “Everest Mount”, in A Gazetteer of the Territories under the Government of the East-India Company, and the Native States on the Continent of India. […], London: W[illia]m H[oughton] Allen & Co., […], →OCLC, page 306, column 1

   But narrative, after all, is Mr. Gilfillan's forte, and his picture of the flood is a masterpiece. […] Then, we have mountains submerged and volcanoes extinguished, "Ben Nevis sunk fathoms and fathoms more beneath the waves"—"the eye of Mount Blanc darkened, Old Taurus blotted out," the tide "rolling over the summit of Mount Everest, and violating its last particle of virgin snow"—and lastly, "some human scenes of extraordinary interest," which Mr. Gilfillan descries amidst the surrounding confusion.

   1860 July 21, George Gilfillan, quotee, “Alpha and Omega [book review]”, in The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science, and Art, volume X, number 247, London: […] Spottiswoode and Co., […], →OCLC, page 87, column 2

   Chimborazo was long supposed to be the tallest mountain on the globe, but its supremacy has been supplanted by Mount Everest in Asia, and Aconcagua in Chile. [Footnote †: Mount Everest is 29,000 feet, and Aconcagua 23,200. [Hermann von] Schlagintweit enumerates thirteen Himalayan summits over 25,000 feet, and forty-six above 20,000.]

   1870, James Orton, chapter VIII, in The Andes and the Amazon: or, Across the Continent of South America, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 131

   Synonyms: Peak XV, Chomolungma, Chomolangma, Zhumulangma, Chu-mu-lang-ma, Chumulangma, Sagarmatha, Qomolangma

plural Mount Everests

1. figurativelyAn endeavor that is very demanding yet rewarding; also, something which is the highest achievement, challenge, etc.; the epitome, the pinnacle, the ultimate.

   War and Peace is often seen as the Mount Everest of novels. A daunting door-stopper of a tome, at almost 1,500 pages, it is rarely finished.

   2010 January 17, Claire Sawers, “A journey from ballroom to battlefield”, in The Times, London: News UK, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 09 Jul 2021

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   We stand on the colossal peak of King Lear, with Othello on our right hand and Macbeth on our left, the sublime masses of Elizabethan mountain country rolling on every side of us, yet plainly dominated by the extraordinary central cluster of aiguilles on which we have planted ourselves. This triple summit of the later tragedies of [William] Shakespeare forms the Mount Everest of the poetry of the world.

   1907, Edmund Gosse, “The Age of Elizabeth 1560–1610”, in A Short History of Modern English Literature, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC, page 104

   After this rather tricky problem let's climb the Mount Everest of all writing problems. I mean, of course, the world-famous, forbidding peak of U.S. income-tax prose.

   1958, Rudolf Flesch, “How to Write Like a Pro”, in A New Way to Better English, Garden City, N.Y.: Dolphin Books, Doubleday & Company, →OCLC, page 102

   Personally, as a coach, I always considered the NCAA Tournament to be the Mount Everest of basketball. Just to be asked to climb it was a compliment.

   1983, Al McGuire, “Foreword”, in They Were Number One: A History of the NCAA Basketball Tournament, New York, N.Y.: Leisure Press, →ISBN, page 13

   I lost seven kilos in the heat, but I needed to do it. I had to put myself through the wall to get where I needed to be. This was my Mount Everest. I had to climb it to prove to myself that I could compete at this level. But by gee, it was bloody hard work.

   2011, Max Davidson, quoting Dean Jones, “Dean Jones: ‘Get Me a Real Australian’”, in Fields of Courage: The Bravest Chapters in Sport, London: Abacus, Little, Brown Book Group, published 2012, →ISBN, page 95

   Most great book lists concentrate on works of the highest literary or scholarly merit. Think of the Harvard Classics, Harold Bloom's "Western Canon," the Modern Library's selection of "the 100 best novels of the 20th century." Here, the compilers imply, are our cultural masterpieces, the Mount Everests and K2s all literate people should scale in their lifetime.

   2012 June 21, Michael Dirda, “Library of Congress issues list of ‘Books that Shaped America’”, in The Washington Post (Style section), Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 06 Jun 2014

   Synonyms: acme, apex, zenith, apogee, apotheosis, ascendance, capstone, climax