Horst

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /hɔːst/

Definitions

1. An elevated block of the Earth's crust surrounded by faults, commonly formed by tectonic processes occurring over geological time
2. A landform characterized by a raised area flanked by two or more faults, often resulting in a plateau-like structure
3. A geological feature representing a ridge or uplifted section of terrain created by the movement of tectonic plates against one another

Etymology: The geological "horst" is a German term that began as an ordinary word for a heap. In German, "Horst" meant a heap or a cluster, and geologists borrowed it in the 19th century for a block of the Earth's crust that has been pushed up between two parallel faults while the land on either side has dropped away. The picture is of a raised ridge standing above lower ground, the reverse of the valley-forming "graben" that sits between the same kinds of faults. English has a near-twin for this word in "hurst", which is a doublet: both forms descend from the same ancient source, but English took the older word as "hurst", meaning a wooded hill or a copse, and the geological term came in later through German. The two words have therefore followed separate paths and only meet at their common root.