mountain skink
- noun
- US
:
eslizón de montaña
- In the forests of Mexico, the mountain skink thrives among the oak and pine trees.
Examples
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The mountain skink can often be found basking on warm rocks in its natural habitat.
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Hikers spotted a mountain skink darting through the underbrush on the rocky trail.
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So how do the Mountain skinks keep their babies safe?
Synonyms
A small lizard that lives on rocky mountain slopes in the southwestern United States and Mexico
Surface Forms
Morphology
This is a straightforward noun–noun compound where 'mountain' specifies the habitat of 'skink' (a type of lizard). The combined meaning—a skink living in mountainous areas—is directly derivable from the constituents and follows common compositional patterns, so a learner who knows both words will understand it.
Etymology
Mountain skink is a name that gives a simple picture: mountain shows where it lives and skink is a kind of lizard, so the name means 'a small lizard that lives in mountain areas'.
