Fifteener

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A mountain that rises to an elevation of at least fifteen thousand feet above sea level
2. A peak reaching a height of fifteen thousand feet or more in altitude
3. Any summit that attains an elevation of fifteen thousand feet or greater

Etymology: The English word "fifteener" is a plain compound of "fifteen" and the suffix "-er", which in English has long marked a thing or person associated with a number or unit. The number part is ancient: "fifteen" descends from Old English "fīftīene", built from "fīf" (five) and "tēne" (ten), so the word literally means "five-ten" and carries the same Germanic roots as its numeral parts. The suffix has a more tangled path. It traces back through Latin "-ārius", which passed into Old French as "-ier" and then into Middle English as "-er". Old English had its own similar ending, "-ere", so the English suffix arrived from two directions and merged into a single form.

Synonyms: fifteen-liner