Mount Rushmore
English
Etymology
Named after American businessman and attorney Charles E. Rushmore (1857–1931). In 1877, the United States broke the Treaty of Fort Laramie and asserted control over the Black Hills area, leading to an influx of settlers and prospectors, among whom was New York mining promoter James Wilson, who organized the Harney Peak Tin Company, and hired Rushmore to visit the Black Hills and confirm the company’s land claims. Rushmore visited the area on three or four trips over the span of 1884 and 1885. During one of these visits, Rushmore was traveling near the base of the peak and, impressed with it, asked his guide, Bill Challis, the mountain’s name, who replied that the mountain did not have a name, but that it would henceforth be named after Rushmore. The name “Mount Rushmore” continued to be used locally, and was officially recognized by the United States Board on Geographic Names in June 1930.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˌmaʊnt ˈɹʌʃmɔː(ɹ)/
Audio (US): (file)
Proper noun
- A famous mountain in the Black Hills with the heads of four US presidents carved into it.
Translations
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Noun
Mount Rushmore (plural Mount Rushmores)
- (by extension) The four most important people in a particular field or category.
- 2020 March 27, Cade Metz, “The Week in Tech: We’re Testing How Much the Internet Can Handle”, in New York Times[1]:
- In the long run, the companies behind all this technology could emerge from the pandemic as an even greater force in our lives. So said a Mount Rushmore of Times tech reporters: Daisuke Wakabayashi, Jack Nicas, Steve Lohr and Mike Isaac.
- 2021 May 1, Constance Grady, quoting Sarah D. Bunting, “The Day Dawson Cried”, in Vox[2]:
- Crying Dawson ruled the internet comment sections of the late ’00s and early ’10s. It’s “on the Mount Rushmore of GIFs,” says TV critic Sarah D. Bunting.
Alternative forms
Further reading
- Mount Rushmore on Wikipedia.Wikipedia