hill

Etymology

From Middle English hil, from Old English hyll (“hill”), from Proto-Germanic *hulliz (“hill”), from Proto-Indo-European *kl̥Hnís (“top, hill, rock”) (compare also Proto-Germanic *halluz (“stone, rock”)). Cognate with Middle Dutch hille, hulle (“hill”), Low German hull (“hill”), Old Norse hóll (“hill”), Latin collis (“hill”), Lithuanian kalnas, Albanian kallumë (“big pile, tall heap”), Russian холм (xolm, “hill”), Old English holm (“rising land, island”). More at holm.

noun

1. An elevated landmass smaller than a mountain.
   The park is sheltered from the wind by a hill to the east.
2. A sloping road.
   You need to pick up speed to get up the hill that's coming up.
3. (US) A heap of earth surrounding a plant.
4. (US) A single cluster or group of plants growing close together, and having the earth heaped up about them.
   a hill of corn or potatoes
5. (baseball) The pitcher’s mound.
6. The raised portion of the surface of a vinyl record.

verb

1. To form into a heap or mound.
2. To heap or draw earth around plants.
   After the seeds were inserted, the earth was hilled up all around into a smooth little mound. 1977, Gene Weltfish, The Lost Universe: Pawnee Life and Culture, page 102