moutonnée

[moot-n-ey]

adjective

Geology.

1. noting or pertaining to a rock formation having a rounded outline like the back of a sheep, resulting from glacial action.

Word History and Origins

Origin of moutonnée¹

First recorded in 1840–45; from French (roche) moutonnée “fleecy (rock),” past participle of moutonner “to have fleecy clouds”; mouton ( def. ), mutton ¹ ( def. )

Example Sentences

They were not moutonnée, their smooth look from a distance was only owing to their singular firmness.

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Some of the larger boulders had glacial furrows and scratches upon them, and all the hills bordering the shore were rounded and moutonnee.

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In addition to these polished, striated, and grooved surfaces of rock, another mark of the former action of a glacier is the "roche moutonnee."

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