mountaineer
(maʊntɪˈnɪə(r))
Also 7 -ier, -tanier, -taneer, -tineer.
[f. mountain + -eer1.
Cf. mountainer and OF. montagnier, montainier adj., mountain-dwelling.]
1. A native of or dweller amongst mountains. Also attrib. as adj.
| 1610 Shakes. Temp. iii. iii. 44 When wee were Boyes Who would beleeue that there were Mountayneeres, Dew-lapt [etc.]. 1625 Tuke Conc. Holy Eucharist 6 That Mountineer, Michah of Ephraim. 1630 Drayton Muses' Elysium Nymphal ii. 10 This Cleon was a Mountaineer. 1678 R. L'Estrange Seneca's Mor., Happy Life xvii. (1696) 268 The Mountanier makes the best Soldier. 1725 De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 277 We saw several huts of the mountaineer inhabitants. 1821 Byron Two Foscari iii. i, The longing sorrow Of the sad mountaineer when far away. 1879 C. Rossetti Seek & F. 91 The Mountaineer is characteristically hardy,..a lover of freedom, a patriot. |
2. A member of the ‘Mountain’ (see mountain 6).
| 1802 Sketch of Paris II. liii. 197 The montagnards or mountaineers, that is, those monsters who were always thirsting for blood. 1827 Scott Napoleon Introd., Wks. 1870 IX. 263 The Mountaineers, his former associates. |
3. One skilled or occupied in mountain climbing.
| 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. xvi. 116, I had improved as a mountaineer since my ascent of Mont Blanc. 1872 Jenkinson Guide Eng. Lakes (1879) 221 The experienced mountaineer may have a rough and romantic walk by descending along the side of the Comb Gill ravine. |
Hence mountaiˈneer v. intr., to be a mountain climber; usually in vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1803 Southey Lett. (1856) I. 247 My mountaineering recollections are to come in the next book. 1862 Tyndall (title), Mountaineering in 1861. 1890 Dickens' Dict. Lond. 23/2 The mountaineering qualification of the club is a severe one. 1892 C. T. Dent Mountaineering ii. 61 Those who mountaineer in regions where the heights are undetermined must not depend on aneroids alone. 1897 M. Kingsley W. Africa 582, I wish I had got the mountaineering spirit. |