iceberg

English

Iceberg diagram

An iceberg

Etymology

Borrowed from Dutch ijsberg (compound of ijs (“ice”) +‎ berg (“mountain”)), from Middle Dutch ijsberch. First used to describe a glacier as seen at a distance from a ship then used as a term to describe the floating chunks of ice broken off from such glaciers. Cognate to German Eisberg, Danish isbjerg, Norwegian isberg and Swedish isberg. Figurative senses in reference to the fact that only one-tenth of an iceberg is usually visible above water.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈaɪsbɜːɡ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈaɪsbɝɡ/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪsbɜː(ɹ)ɡ
• Hyphenation: ice‧berg

Noun

iceberg (plural icebergs)

1. (obsolete) The seaward end of a glacier. [18th–19th c.]
2. A huge mass of ocean-floating ice which has broken off a glacier or ice shelf [from 19th c.]

   The Titanic hit an iceberg and sank.

3. (US, slang) An aloof person. [from 19th c.]
4. (figuratively, after an adjective) An impending disastrous event whose adverse effects are only beginning to show.
   • 2013, “How Barack Obama can get at least some of his credibility back”, in The Economist‎^[1]:

     He has little to lose: at present he will go down in history, alongside George W. Bush, as a skipper who ignored the looming fiscal iceberg.

5. (figuratively, slang, chiefly Internet slang) A topic that is more convoluted and fractal than it may seem at first, and is therefore difficult to grasp in its entirety.

   Near-synonym: rabbit hole

   Do some digging into that politician's past life and associates, and you'll see that the iceberg runs deep.

   There's a massive iceberg of increasingly crazy fanfics out there based around those two characters.

Derived terms

• bergy bit
• blue iceberg
• iceberg basement
• iceberg droppings
• iceberger
• iceberg green
• iceberg lettuce (Lactuca sativa var. capitata)
• iceberglike
• iceberg theory
• iceberg video
• icebergy
• tip of the iceberg

 

Related terms

• berg
• fatberg
• ice
• ice floe

 

Descendants

• → Azerbaijani: aysberq
• → French: iceberg
• → Spanish: iceberg
• → Portuguese: iceberg, icebergue, aicebergue (prescriptive)
• → Turkish: aysberg
• → Welsh: eisberg

Translations

huge mass of floating ice

• Afrikaans: ysberg
• Albanian: ajsberg m
• Arabic: جَبَل جَلِيد m (jabal jalīd), جَبَل جَلِيدِيّ m (jabal jalīdiyy), كُتْلَة جَلِيدِيَّة f (kutla jalīdiyya)
• Armenian: այսբերգ (hy) (aysberg)
• Asturian: iceber m
• Azerbaijani: aysberq (az), buzdağı (az)
• Basque: iceberg (eu), izozmendi
• Belarusian: а́йсберг m (ájsbjerh), лёдаго́р m (ljodahór)
• Bengali: হিমশৈল (bn) (himośōil)
• Bulgarian: а́йсберг m (ájsberg)
• Burmese: ရေခဲတောင် (my) (rehkai:taung)
• Catalan: iceberg (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 冰山 (bing¹ saan¹)

  Hokkien: 冰山 (zh-min-nan) (peng-soaⁿ)

  Mandarin: 冰山 (zh) (bīngshān)

  Wu: 冰山 (¹pin-se)

• Cornish: menydh rew m
• Crimean Tatar: buzdağ
• Czech: kra (cs) f
• Danish: isbjerg (da) n
• Dutch: ijsberg (nl) m
• Erzya: эйпандо (ejpando)
• Esperanto: glacimonto
• Estonian: jäämägi (et)
• Faroese: ísfjall n
• Finnish: jäävuori (fi)
• French: iceberg (fr) m, montagne de glace (fr)
• Galician: iceberg (gl) m
• Georgian: აისბერგი (aisbergi)
• German: Eisberg (de) m
• Greek: παγόβουνο (el) n (pagóvouno)
• Greenlandic: iluliaq
• Hebrew: קַרְחוֹן יַמִּי (he) m (karkhón yamí)
• Hindi: हिमशैल m (himśail)
• Hungarian: jéghegy (hu)
• Icelandic: borgarísjaki (is) m, ísjaki (is) m
• Ido: glaciomonto (io)
• Indonesian: gunung es
• Ingrian: jäämäki
• Interlingua: iceberg
• Inuktitut: ᐱᖃᓗᔭᖅ (piqaloyaq)
• Irish: cnoc oighir
• Italian: iceberg (it) m
• Japanese: 氷山 (ja) (ひょうざん, hyōzan)
• Kazakh: айсберг (aisberg), мұзтау (mūztau)
• Khmer: ផ្ទាំងទឹកកក (phtĕəng tɨk kɑɑk)
• Korean: 빙산(氷山) (ko) (bingsan)
• Kyrgyz: айсберг (ky) (aysberg), музтоо (muztoo)
• Lao: ພູເຂົານ້ຳກ້ອນ (phū khao nam kǭn)
• Latin: mons glacialis m
• Latvian: aisbergs (lv) m, leduskalns m
• Lithuanian: ledkalnis m
• Luxembourgish: Äisbierg
• Macedonian: санта мраз f (santa mraz), санта f (santa)
• Malay: aisberg (ms)
• Maltese: ajsberg
• Manx: beinn rioee
• Maori: toka haupapa
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: мөсөн уул (mösön uul)

  Mongolian: ᠮᠥᠰᠦᠨ
  ᠠᠭᠤᠯᠠ (mösün aɣula)

• Norman: montangne dé gliaiche f (Jersey)
• Northern Sami: jiekŋavárri
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: isfjell (no) n, isberg n

  Nynorsk: isfjell n

• Persian: یخکوه (yaxkuh), آیسبرگ (âysberg)
• Plautdietsch: Iessboach m
• Polish: góra lodowa (pl) f
• Portuguese: iceberg (pt) m, icebergue (pt) m, montanha de gelo
• Romanian: aisberg (ro) n
• Russian: а́йсберг (ru) m (ájsberg)
• Scottish Gaelic: eigh-bheinn f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: са̑нта f, са̑нта леда f

  Roman: sȃnta (sh) f, sȃnta leda f

• Slovak: ľadovec m, kryha f
• Slovene: ledena gora (sl) f
• Spanish: banquisa (es) f, iceberg (es) m, témpano de hielo m, témpano (es) m, aisberg m
• Swedish: isberg (sv) n
• Tajik: айсберг (aysberg), кӯҳи ях (küh-i yax)
• Thai: ภูเขาน้ำแข็ง (th) (puu-kǎo-nám-kɛ̌ng)
• Tibetan: ཁྱགས་རི (khyags ri)
• Turkish: aysberg (tr), buz dağı (tr)
• Turkmen: aýsberg (tk)
• Udmurt: йӧгурезь (jögureź)
• Ukrainian: а́йсберг (uk) m (ájsberh)
• Urdu: آئس برگ (āis barg)
• Uyghur: مۇز تاغ (muz tagh)
• Uzbek: aysberg (uz), muztogʻ (uz)
• Vietnamese: núi băng trôi
• Volapük: gladabel (vo)
• Welsh: eisberg, mynydd iâ, rhewfryn m
• West Frisian: iisberch c
• Yiddish: אײַזבאַרג m (ayzbarg)

See also

• freeboard
• growler
• melt pond

References

• iceberg on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Category:Icebergs on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “iceberg”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English iceberg, from Dutch ijsberg (literally “ice mountain”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ajs.bɛʁɡ/, /is.bɛʁɡ/, /ajz.bɛʁɡ/, /iz.bɛʁɡ/, /ajs.bœʁɡ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛʁɡ
• Homophone: icebergs

Noun

iceberg m (plural icebergs)

1. iceberg

Derived terms

• partie émergée de l’iceberg
• partie visible de l’iceberg
• sommet de l’iceberg

Further reading

• “iceberg”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Galician

Noun

iceberg m (plural icebergs)

1. iceberg

Italian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English iceberg, from Dutch ijsberg (literally “ice mountain”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈaj.zberɡ/, /ˈajˌzbɛrɡ/
• Rhymes: -ajzberɡ, -ɛrɡ

Noun

iceberg m (invariable)

1. iceberg

Derived terms

• punta dell'iceberg (“tip of the iceberg”)

See also

• ghiaccio (“ice”)

Portuguese

Alternative forms

• icebergue, aicebergue (prescriptive)

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English iceberg, from Dutch ijsberg (literally “ice mountain”).

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˌaj.seˈbɛʁ.ɡi/ [ˌaɪ̯.seˈbɛɦ.ɡi]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˌaj.seˈbɛʁ.ɡi/ [ˌaɪ̯.seˈbɛɦ.ɡi]
  • (São Paulo) IPA^(key): /ˌaj.seˈbɛɾ.ɡi/ [ˌaɪ̯.seˈbɛɾ.ɡi]
  • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /ˌaj.seˈbɛʁ.ɡi/ [ˌaɪ̯.seˈbɛʁ.ɡi]
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˌaj.seˈbɛɻ.ɡe/ [ˌaɪ̯.seˈbɛɻ.ɡe]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˌaj.sɨˈbɛɾ.ɡɨ/ [ˌaj.sɨˈβɛɾ.ɣɨ]

Noun

iceberg m (plural icebergs)

1. iceberg (huge mass of floating ice)

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from English iceberg, from Dutch ijsberg (literally “ice mountain”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Spain) /iθeˈbeɾ/ [i.θeˈβ̞eɾ], /iθeˈbeɾɡ/ [i.θeˈβ̞eɾɣ̞]
• IPA^(key): (Latin America, Philippines) /iseˈbeɾ/ [i.seˈβ̞eɾ], /iseˈbeɾɡ/ [i.seˈβ̞eɾɣ̞]
  • Rhymes: -eɾ, -eɾɡ
  • Syllabification: i‧ce‧berg
• IPA^(key): (Latin America, also) /ˈaisbeɾɡ/ [ˈai̯z.β̞eɾɣ̞]
  • Rhymes: -aisbeɾɡ

Noun

iceberg m (plural icebergs)

1. iceberg

   Synonym: témpano de hielo

   la punta del iceberg ― the tip of the iceberg

Derived terms

• punta del iceberg f

 

Further reading

• “iceberg”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014