counterfort

== English == === Etymology === From Middle French contrefort. === Noun === counterfort (plural counterforts) A buttress built against a wall. A spur of a mountain range. 1884, Ernest George Ravenstein & al. trans. Élisée Reclus, The Earth and Its Inhabitants, Vol. VI: Asia, Vol. I, p. 165: With its counterforts projecting some 300 miles, [the Pamir] forms the western headland of all the plateaux and mountain systems skirting the Chinese Empire; it completely separates the two halves of Asia, and forms an almost impassable barrier to migration and warlike incursions. === References === The Imperial Dictionary of the English Language (1882)