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Erratic

Geology
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A boulder carried and deposited far from its original source by a glacier. It suggests displacement, exile, and strange belonging.

Detailed Definition
A glacial erratic is a rock transported by moving ice and left behind after the glacier melts. It may sit alone in a landscape whose local bedrock is entirely different, carrying a distant geological origin into an unfamiliar place. In poetry, an erratic can embody migration, exile, inherited strangeness, or the survivor who outlasts the force that moved them. Its solitary presence asks how a thing can be both misplaced and meaningful.
Example
Example in poetry:
A glacial erratic stood alone in the meadow, carried there by ice from a distant mountain; A poet can use an erratic boulder as a symbol of exile, displacement, or a history that does not match its surroundings; “The erratic knew another country of stone” gives the transported rock an imaginative voice; In a landscape poem, identifying an erratic reveals the vanished glacier's power and reach
Additional Notes
A glacial erratic is a transported boulder unlike nearby bedrock. Its misplaced presence can embody exile, survival, migration, or an unsettling attachment to place.
Also Known As
Glacial Erratic Erratic Boulder
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