bergy bit

[ bur-gee ]

noun

1. a small iceberg, somewhat larger than a growler.

Word History and Origins

Origin of bergy bit¹

First recorded in 1930–35; berg + -y ²

Example Sentences

Consider “bergy bit,” used to describe a piece of ice that has broken away from an iceberg.

From Los Angeles Times

Then the war between the ice and the elements will begin afresh, until the once stately ice-mountain will become the ‘bergy bit,’ as whalers call the slowly-lessening mass of crumbling, spongy ice, until it finally disappears in the waters; but only to rise again in the form of vapour, which the cold of the north will convert into snow, the parent of that inland ice about the polar regions which forms the source of subsequent icebergs afresh—the process being always going on, never ending!”

From Project Gutenberg