Tundra
/ˈtʌn.drə/noun
A vast, treeless Arctic plain with permanently frozen subsoil.
Did you know?English took tundra from Russian, which borrowed it from a Sámi word for treeless high ground, showing how indigenous Arctic geography quietly shaped a global scientific term.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Sámi
PSámi
*tūndâr / *tundar
“treeless upland or barren plain”
18th–19th Century
Russian
тундра
“Arctic treeless plain”
19th Century
French
toundra
“Arctic plain; frozen treeless land”
19th Century
English
tundra
“Arctic treeless plain”
Modern English
English
tundra
“A vast treeless Arctic biome with frozen ground”