pingo

noun

1. A conical mound of earth with an ice core caused by permafrost uplift, particularly if lasting more than a year.

   “The greatest variation in cover thickness, as determined from collapsed pingos, is in irregularly shaped pingos, or those with asymmetrically located ice-cores.”

   “Considerable progress has been made on the discovery and mapping of many open system pingos in central Alaska and Yukon Territory[…], as well as the discovery of pingo-like mounds in the shallow waters of the Beaufort Sea north of the mouth of the Mackenzie River. The greatest advance in pingo research in the last decade has been a consideration and understanding of theory and rate of pingo growth […]”

   “With the exception of small pingos, most pingo ice cores have several ice types. The bulk of the core can be segregated ice, intrusive ice formed from the freezing of bulk water, or any combination of the two types. In addition, dilation-crack ice (tension-crack ice, Brown and Kupsch, 1974) is commonly the main ice type beneath the summit of pingos with craters.”

   “Larger scale frost-heave features, such as pingoes, are rare because there is insufficient water available, generally, for the growth of large ice bodies.”

2. (Sri-Lanka, dated)A flexible pole supported on one shoulder, with a load suspended from each end.

   “This done, he [an elephant] took up the pingo and moved away from the spot; but at the distance of about a fathom or two, laid it down again, and ripping open one of the bundles, took out of it all the contents, somans [footnote: Woman's robe], cambāyas [footnote: The figured cloth worn by men], handkerchiefs, and several pieces of white cambrick cloth, all which he tore to small pieces, and flung them wildly here and there. He did the same with all the other pingoes.”

   “The Gańga-vaṇṣa minissu are the washers of the Oliya caste, who are not only a low caste, but come below the Paduvó and Berawáyó, and are the only caste who will carry the pingoes of the smiths.”

   “The following are only a few of the countless uses of this invaluable tree [the coconut]. […] The stem of the leaf, for fences, for pingoes (or yokes) for carrying burthens on the shoulders, for fishing-rods, and innumerable domestic utensils.”

   “Ceremonial pingoes may also be silver tipped, as in the case of a beautiful example at the Embekke Devale[…].”

3. (Sri-Lanka, dated)A measure of weight equivalent to that which can be carried using a pingo, perhaps about 55 pounds (25 kilograms) (see the 2013 quotation).

   “Upon reaching this quantity, the tribute decreased one pingo annually until the number was reduced to five.”

   “He […] paid the lord of the village three pingos worth one larim and four fanões.”

   “A certain Wieremunie Joan testified about facts which already had occurred in 1772 when he had delivered four and a half pingo [footnote: A "pingo" is circa fifty-five pound of cinnamon.[…]] of cinnamon above the fixed duty of five and that the Durea still owed him four and a half rixdollar.”