C1 · 36 words

Maps and surveying

Scale, contour and datum: how the ground gets onto the sheet.

Der Meridian is a line on the graticule, and its name was about the time of day long before it was about a map. Latin meridies is midday, worn down from medius dies, the middle of the day, and it is the same word that sits in the a.m. and p.m. of an English clock: ante meridiem and post meridiem, before and after noon. The link is not a pun. The sun crosses the meridian of a place at local noon, so every point on one line from pole to pole has its noon at the same moment, and that is what made the line worth naming. German uses the Latin word for the line itself and keeps der Längengrad for the figure that says which line it is.

The words

Verb (7)

einnordento orient (a map to north)VerbC1

Wer die Karte eingenordet hat, sieht links auf dem Papier, was links im Gelände liegt.Once the map is set to north, what lies to your left is on the left of the sheet.

Separable: eingenordet. Colloquially also jemanden einnorden, to bring someone into line.

peilento take a bearing (on)VerbC1

Vom Gipfel aus peilen wir zwei Kirchtürme, um unseren Standort zu bestimmen.From the summit we take bearings on two church towers to fix our position.

Also anpeilen. Über den Daumen peilen: to make a rough guess.

vermessento survey (land)VerbC1

Nach der Teilung muss das Grundstück neu vermessen werden.Once it has been divided, the plot has to be surveyed again.

Inseparable; participle vermessen. Sich vermessen: to make a measuring error. The adjective vermessen means presumptuous.

abmarkento mark (a boundary) on the groundVerbC2

Die neuen Grenzpunkte wurden mit Kunststoffmarken abgemarkt.The new boundary points were marked with plastic markers.

Separable; official German. The noun is die Abmarkung.

absteckento stake out, to peg outVerbC1

Die Ecken des Hauses sind schon mit Pflöcken abgesteckt.The corners of the house have already been pegged out.

Separable. Figuratively: den Rahmen abstecken, to set out the limits.

kartierento map (an area)VerbC1

Die Studierenden haben im Sommer das ganze Tal kartiert.Over the summer the students mapped the whole valley.

Participle without ge-: kartiert.

abgreifento measure off (with dividers)VerbC2

Die Entfernung habe ich mit dem Zirkel auf der Karte abgegriffen.I measured the distance off the map with the dividers.

Separable, irregular: griff ab, abgegriffen. The participle also means worn from handling.

This list belongs to Nature, weather and living things — 42 lists and 1564 words that can also be practised as a whole.

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Multiple choice and gaps, drawn from exactly these 36 words. Whatever you get wrong comes back tomorrow.