tolt

• Format: Manuscript
• Language: English
• Published: 1972
• Subjects: English language > Dialects > Newfoundland and Labrador; Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/ref/collection/elrcdne/id/78649

tolt n Probably the most strking feature of the Newfoundland landscape is the _tolt_ or"miniature mountain", a sharp, rocky hill rising from a relatively flat plain. The only dictionary etmology I have seen for the word is "< British dial. _toll,_ clump or ridge of trees". _Toll_ may be cognate, but the obvious origin seems to me to be found in Irish dialect _told,_ which describes sustantially the same topographical feature in Ireland. _Tolc_ is a form of Irish _tolca,_ mountain,which has the diminutive form _tulcan,_ hillcock, mound. A _tolt_ in scientific terminalogy is a _monadnock_ which term several dictionaries inform us is derived from _Mt. Monadnock_ in New Hampshire. While this may be true as a direct derivation, none I have seen relate the name to Gaelic _monadh_, heathy expanse, (also) mountain and _cnoc,_ a hillcock, or to the Irish equivalents. _Tolc_ is likely from or cognate with Latin _tollere_ v., raise up. W. J. KIRWIN DEC 1972 JH DEC 1972 Used I and Sup Used I and Sup Not used