Monday, March 10, 2014

No Wonder They Call Them UGGS

A popular myth purports that the Eskimos have 40, or 50, or even 100 words for "snow." In fact, according to some scientists at the Smithsonian, this is actually true, depending. Central Siberian Yupik has 40 such terms, while the Inuit dialect spoken in Nunavik, Quebec, has at least 53, including matsaaruti, which means "wet snow that can be used to ice a sleigh's runners," and pukak, for "the crystalline powder snow that looks like salt." 

The English language also has a lot of words for snow. The most common ones are wintry mix, powder, sleet, flurry, flake, frost, blizzard, freezing rain, drift, whiteout and Nor'easter. But here in Maine there are even more, most of which are used primarily in March and a few in April. This morning, hearing from my neighbor Polly that we will be getting more of it every single day this week, and that on Wednesday and Thursday it may produce significant accumulations up to 8 inches, the following words for snow popped into my mind:
shit
fuck
dammit
crap
ugh
enough 
already
give 
me
a
break
you've
got
to
be
kidding
why
me
shovel
this
that's
bullshit
get 
me
out 
of
here
call
my
travel
agent
Florida 
here
I
come


1 comment:

  1. I bet the boarder kids have more names for snow: pow pow, smoosh, wicked, spring, deep, fluff, drop, z, uppity, rad, wad, junk, etc. Those eskimos just have more uses for theirs.
    I will meet you in FL. Let's ask Debby Robertson for her condo. She can come too. seriously.

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