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Aug 11, 2010 This week's theme Glacial landforms This week's words drumlin moraine esker fjord cirque The Keptie Hills esker Arbroath, Scotland Photo: Stevie D. Discuss Feedback RSS/XML A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg esker PRONUNCIATION: (ES-kuhr) MEANING: noun: A long, narrow ridge of gravel and sand deposited by a stream flowing in or under a retreating glacier. ETYMOLOGY: From Irish eiscir (ridge of gravel). USAGE: "Skiing the moraine is always a seminar in geology, but this particular jumble of drumlins and eskers -- characteristic landforms left by restless glaciation -- puts it in a nutshell. My Grade 11 geography teacher likened an esker to the mess left by a drunk simultaneously walking backward and throwing up." John Barber; Ski Country, Without the Traffic Jams; The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada); Dec 6, 2008. Explore "esker" in the Visual Thesaurus. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: Oh, threats of hell and hopes of paradise! / One thing at least is certain -- this life flies; / One thing is certain, and the rest is lies; / The flower that once has blown forever dies. -Omar Khayyam, poet, mathematician, philosopher, astronomer, and physician (1048-1131)

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