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knob

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knob noun A high point on a mountain ridge, the top of a mountain, sometimes a rounded one. Also used in place names, as in Anakeesta Knob (TN). [DARE labels this usage “widespread, but more frequent North Central, Appalachians”]

1777 (in 1940 McJimsey Topo Terms in VA 278) From the ford aforesaid to the westerly end of Morris’s Knob, about three miles above the Maiden Spring on Clinch. 1839 (in 2003 TN Petitions I 126) your petitioners are required and oppressed as they have to march six or seven miles over a range of rough and high Knobs to get to the present muster ground of the company they are attached to. 1892 Doak Wagonauts Abroad 160 We have now passed over the interesting geological series between Knoxville and the Great Smoky—over limestone, shale, slate, micaceous slates—over “grey knobs” and ‘red knobs”—not at all attractively “knobby” to tourists with a balky horse. 1926 Hunnicutt Twenty Years 117 I will go back to this knob and call him. 1956 Fink That’s Why 3 Peak seldom appears in a mountain’s name. Knob is the most common term. 1981 GSMNP-122:28 That little knob right in yander you can see in between the LeConte Mountain and Tater Hill—that’s old Brushy. 2006 WV Encycl 273 Peaks of hard sandstone on the ridge tops are called knobs, such as Bald Knob (4,840 feet) and Panther Knob (4,508 feet).

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