| in Did You Know Facts
The phrase "abominable snowman" was first used by a newspaper columnist.
British lieutenant-colonel Charles Howard-Bury discovered enormous footprints that were roughly "three times" the size of a typical human's while hiking around Mount Everest in 1921. His story was quickly picked up by Henry Newman of the Calcutta Statesman, who printed the description as metch kangmi, which he mistranslated as "abominable snowman." His guide claimed they had been left by a met-teh kangmi or "man-sized wild creature."