cliff dweller
- noun
- /klɪf ˈdwɛlər/
- US
:
habitante de acantilado
- Looking back in time, the earliest of humans were thought to have been cave or cliff dwellers and nomads.
- the ancient cliff dwellers
- cliff dwellers and caves
Examples
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The ancient cliff dwellers of the Southwest lugged their food and water up ladders for a reason; they didn't come to dwell high up on sheer canyon walls because they liked the view.
Academic text (2004) -
Archaeologists discovered pottery and tools that belonged to the cliff dwellers of the Southwest.
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Picture of cliff dwellers and caves. "He talk about me?" Les asked, and despite the mug's heat, gripped it hard.
Fiction book (1995) -
These primitive Indians welcomed the high plateaus the cliff dwellers left after their mass exodus from our area toward the end of the thirteenth century.
Blog text (19) -
Ongoing drought is the final cause for the migration of the cliff dwellers from their village, called White Rock Place, but before that, as the water resources diminished, their control became a matter of inter-clan rivalry.
Academic text (2002) -
Cave and cliff dwellers may have changed the properties of a cave or cliff to more readily meet their needs or perhaps added a fire pit to generate warmth, roast food, or fire ceramic wares, but their impact was probably minimal.
Academic text (2010) -
McNickles' vivid reconstruction of life among the ancient cliff dwellers is so engaging that, as Simon Ortiz has pointed out, readers often fail to recognize the existence of subtexts.
Academic text (2002) -
The ancient cliff dwellers built their homes on the sides of steep cliffs to protect themselves from invaders.
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Many ruins still remain that showcase the impressive architecture of the cliff dwellers from centuries ago.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly and compositionally derived from 'cliff' (steep rock face) + 'dweller' (one who resides somewhere): a person who lives in or among cliffs. This is a straightforward noun+agentive compound following common English patterns (and similar constructions cross-linguistically), so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would readily infer the basic meaning despite any specific cultural or historical reference.
Etymology
The noun cliff dweller comes from a simple picture: people living in homes built on the sides of cliffs. Cliff is the steep rock and dweller is someone who lives there, so the term means 'a person who lived in cliff homes', especially in the American Southwest.
