Sunday, February 10, 2013

Not Enough Words for Snow

We need more words for snow. Too many of our terms rely on adjectives preceding that one boring noun. I think particularly of packing snow—why isn't there a term for that? Other snow words, like powder, are borrowed and only clearly apply to snow when heard or read in context.

Thin coating of snow with an oak leaf shape printed into it
Now that's what I call packing snow, for lack of a better word.

My favorite English words for winter precipitation are sleet and slush. They are both perfect expressions of their meanings.

We need more of those.

1 comment:

troutbirder said...

I remember reading someplace the Inuit people had dozens of words for snow. But then they were essential to their survival...:) The one that changed much though was snowmobile.