strip-mined
Meaning
Past tense and past participle of strip-mine; to extract minerals from the surface of the earth by removing the overlying layers of soil and rock.
Describing land from which minerals have been extracted by strip mining.
Structure
Usage
The company strip-mined the entire hillside for coal.
The landscape was scarred by strip-mined fields.
They have strip-mined this region for decades, leaving little behind.
Etymology
The term 'strip-mined' is a modern compound verb formed from two distinct Old English and Old French roots, combined with a standard Germanic past-tense suffix. The first element, 'strip', evolved from an Old English verb meaning to plunder or rob, developing the specific sense of removing a surface layer. The second element, 'mine', entered English from French, with ultimate Celtic origins referring to an ore deposit. The compound 'strip-mine' logically describes the mining method where the land is stripped of its overburden to access minerals beneath. The addition of the '-ed' suffix follows the regular pattern for forming the past tense, resulting in a word that precisely denotes the completed action of this large-scale extraction process.
Analysis
- strip: From Old English strīepan (to plunder), of Germanic origin. In this compound, it functions as a verb meaning to remove a covering layer. - mine: From Old French mine, of Celtic origin. In this compound, it functions as a verb meaning to dig for ore or minerals. - ed: A productive English suffix of Germanic origin, used here to form the past tense and past participle of the verb.