▪ I. berg1
(bɜːg)
[from iceberg, a. Ger. eisberg = ice-mountain.]
Short for iceberg: A (floating) mountain or mass of ice; (only used when ice is mentioned or understood in the context).
| 1823 Byron Island iv. iv, Steep, harsh, and slippery as a berg of ice. 1830 Lyell Princ. Geol. (1875) I. i. vi. 106 Ice-drifted fragments which have been dropped in deep water by melting bergs. 1847 Tennyson Princess iv. 53 Glittering bergs of ice. 1878 Huxley Physiogr. 163 The finer detritus which the berg carries. |
b. Comb., as berg-field, an expanse of ice covered with bergs.
| 1856 Kane Arct. Exp. I. xxiii. 284 On quitting the berg-field, they saw two dovekies in a crack. |
▪ II. berg2 S. Afr.
(bɜːg)
[Afrikaans, f. Du., = OE. beorg, etc., barrow n.1]
A mountain.
| 1840 B. Shaw Mem. S. Afr. i. 27 To Cape Town school—o'er bergs and knowes, They sent the tawney-coloured boy. 1865 T. Leask S. Afr. Diary 12 June (1954) 2 The wind was blowing down the berg, almost cutting us thro'. 1902 De Wet Three Years' War 25 As there was no water to be obtained nearer than a mile from the berg, we suffered greatly from thirst. 1929 D. Reitz Commando xiii. 121 Having left..for Waterval-onder below the berg. |
b. attrib., as berg-top; berg adder, a South African adder, Bitis atropos, found chiefly on high ground and the hillsides; berg cypress, a mountain shrub, Widdringtonia cupressoides, found growing from Cape Town to Natal; Berg Damara, see Damara; berg wind, a hot, arid wind coming from the mountains, prevalent in several coastal districts of the Cape Province and Natal at various times of the year.
| 1818 Latrobe Jrnl. (1905) v. 89 A wood-keeper..had lately lost his life by the bite of a Berg-adder. 1912 F. W. Fitzsimons Snakes S. Afr. 243 The Berg adder is as venomous as the Puff Adder. |
| 1905 Westm. Gaz. 9 Oct. 10/1 Patches of berg cypress..afford splendid cover for that magnificent antelope the eland. 1953 Cape Times 4 July 3/1 Berg-top rescue ends in romance. |
| 1905 Nature 2 Nov. 19/2 Remarkable winds, locally called ‘Berg winds’, blew from the plateau. 1959 Cape Times 27 June 9/3 Berg winds blow in different months in different areas. In winter they are most frequent along the west and south coasts extending to beyond Knysna. |
▪ III. berg
obs. form of barrow n.1