abominable snowman
3
8.8
- noun
- /əˈbɑːmɪnəbl ˈsnoʊmæn/
- Archaic
:
hombre de las nieves
- Many adventurers have gone into the mountains hoping to catch a glimpse of the abominable snowman.
Examples
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That Bigfoot goes by many names, including Sasquatch, Yeti, the Abominable Snowman and the Ohio Blank Man.
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The abominable snowman.
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"... and then last August, that whatchamacallit, that abominable snowman, that yentl..."
Fiction book (1999) -
Then, the abominable snowman who transforms the Emergency Equipment Center into his own private amusement park and then blames it on Aquaman?
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Legends of the abominable snowman have fascinated people for generations.
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Scientists have yet to find conclusive evidence of the abominable snowman in the Himalayas.
Synonyms
64
8.6
A large, hairy creature like a human that people say lives in remote forests
16
9.5
A large hairy creature like a human said to live in the Himalayan mountains
1
9.9
A large ape-like creature in Australian stories like Bigfoot
Surface Forms
Morphology
abominable + snowman
Although the parts 'abominable' (hateful/detestable) and 'snowman' (a man-shaped figure made of snow) are individually clear, their combination does not transparently yield the intended sense of a large, hairy, humanlike Himalayan creature (the Yeti). The expression is a conventionalized name for a mythic animal rather than a literal detestable snow sculpture, so a B1 learner who only knows the constituents would likely not infer the correct referent.
Etymology
Abominable snowman may come from early explorers who heard local tales about a 'wild man' in the snow and used the strong word abominable together with snowman to make the creature sound frightening. So, it now means a large, hairy, humanlike creature, the 'Yeti', said to live in the high mountains.