Hummock

 WORD OF THE DAY

hummock / noun / HUM-uk

Definition
1: a rounded knoll or hillock
2: a ridge of ice

Examples
“...Yellowlegs nest on the ground, often at the base of a small tree or mossy hummock, so I watched my feet carefully. The nest is a small cup in the moss, typically lined with little dead leaves, lichens, and sedges.”
— Mary F. Wilson, The Juneau (Alaska) Empire, 14 June 2022

Its hummock was part of a wetland spiked with tamarack saplings and carpeted with wild cranberries.
—  Paul A. Smith, Journal Sentinel, 14 Aug. 2022

Did You Know?
Having trouble telling a hummock from a hammock from a hillock?
Not to worry: all three words refer to a small hill or earthen mound.
Hummock, in fact, is an alteration of hammock; this 16th century pair share an ancestor with the Middle Low German words hummel (“small height”) and hump (“bump”), the latter of which is also a distant relative of our English word hump.
As for the 14th-century vintage hillock, a version of the suffix -ock has been attached to nouns to designate a small one of whatever since the days of Old English.
Note that the hilly hammock mentioned here is not related to the hammock offering a swaying repose between supports. That hammock comes from the Spanish hamaca, and ultimately from Taino, a language spoken by the original inhabitants of the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas.