monadnock: an isolated hill or mountain

Or to be more precise: an isolated mountain formed from the exposure of a harder rock as a result of the erosion of a softer one once surrounding it.

But everybody knows that, right?

If you're anything like me, you instantly want to know where this bizarre word comes from. Monadnock is named in honor of a lonely mountain in New Hampshire called...

...

(just wait, you'll never guess)

...

Mount Monadnock.

Mm-hmm.

Why is it called this? I'm so glad you asked. Or all my research would go to waste.

The term monadnock is taken from the language of the Abenaki tribe of Native Americans, who are/were found in parts of Quebec, Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire. They used the term to describe the same thing we use it for today.

To the rest of the world, a monadnock is known as an inselberg.

But, this being America, we don't conform to global consistency. Doesn't matter if that would make things easier for ourselves or others. No no no, that wouldn't do. We had to decide on something of our own to call it.

Why is it so important that we did this--and continue to do this about a wide variety of things?

Because 'Merca, that's why!

Incidentally, Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire has an elevation of just shy of one kilometer.

That's right, I used the Metric system, America! What're you gonna do about it?

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