orography

noun

Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁óh₃s Proto-Italic *ōs Latin ōsder. English oro- Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ- Proto-Hellenic *grə́pʰō Ancient Greek γρᾰ́φω (grắphō) Ancient Greek -ᾱ (-ā) Ancient Greek -η (-ē) Ancient Greek γραφή (graphḗ) Ancient Greek -γραφίᾱ (-graphíā)bor. French -graphieder. English -graphy English orography From oro- (“mountain”) + -graphy.

1. The scientific study, or a physical description of mountains.

   “Orography: A description of mountains.”

   “A knowledge of the Hydrography of a country aids as much in determining its geology as does its Orography, — that is, a description of its mountains.”

2. The orographic features of a region.

   “Morocco was in 1883-1884 the scene of important explorations by de Foucauld, a Frenchman who, disguised as a Jew, crossed and re-crossed the Atlas and supplied the first trustworthy information as to the orography of many parts of the chain.”

   “Most flows actually occur, of course, over non-uniform orography and consequently in numerical models of such flows it is necessary to transform the coordinates so that the equations accurately represent flows in such terrain (Gal-Chen and Somerville 1975).”