Folklore: English names for Ice & snow?

Subject: Folklore: English names for Ice & snow?
From: Mr Red
Date: 02 Jul 07 - 02:35 AM

it has oft been said about the Eskimo (inuit, native American - any more?) have 40 (pick a number) words for snow - well it crossed my mind that there are a fair number of words/phrases in English.

ice - Icicle, sheet ice, black ice, freezing rain, hail, frost, hoar frost, pack ice, thin ice

snow - snow drift, sleet, powder, wrong kind of snow (UK railway joke), artificial snow,

I am sure 'Catters can come-up with more - if it sound local to you add the locale to the word/phrase.

Subject: RE: Folklore: English names for Ice & snow?
From: Mr Red
Date: 02 Jul 07 - 02:38 AM

now for the big one - ice berg

Subject: RE: Folklore: English names for Ice & snow?
From: s&r
Date: 02 Jul 07 - 02:43 AM

Slush

Subject: RE: Folklore: English names for Ice & snow?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 02 Jul 07 - 02:48 AM

Those aren't really words for snow - they're descriptions of different sorts of frozen water.

LTS

Subject: RE: Folklore: English names for Ice & snow?
From: SharonA
Date: 02 Jul 07 - 03:34 AM

Liz, I thought words for ice were part of the request??

For snow: Flurry, "packing snow" (great for making snowballs, snowmen, etc.), "wet snow", snowslide, thundersnow, snowcrust, blizzard, lake-effect snow, coating

For ice: Floe, glare ice, dry ice, icicle

Subject: RE: Folklore: English names for Ice & snow?
From: GUEST,PMB
Date: 02 Jul 07 - 04:41 AM

Rime. You need it at the end of each line.

Subject: RE: Folklore: English names for Ice & snow?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 02 Jul 07 - 05:23 AM

So maybe I'm misunderstanding or maybe I'm a pedant... a different word for an ant would be emmet. A red ant is just a variety of ant. There are red emmets too.

Emmets are what ants are called in the south west UK - Devon, Cornwall and Dorset.

So pack ice is just describing the ice. So is thin, sheet and black. Hail, sleet, snow and frost are all ways of describing frozen water, so would qualify.

LTS

Subject: RE: Folklore: English names for Ice & snow?
From: Mr Red
Date: 02 Jul 07 - 08:33 AM

the point about all these various ways of decribing frozen water is to demonstrate that the Eskimo are not the only ones who need to make distinctions between the various flavours of the stuff because it is important in many instances. The distinctions carry information beyond the mere words.

ice cube

Subject: RE: Folklore: English names for Ice & snow?
From: DMcG
Date: 02 Jul 07 - 09:02 AM

As I understand it, the current thinking is that the Inuit do not have 40 words for ice/snow; they have 40 (or more) expressive-descriptions for ice and snow, rather like like 'pack ice' above. Of course, feel free to contradict me!

Subject: RE: Folklore: English names for Ice & snow?
From: GUEST,Paul Burke
Date: 02 Jul 07 - 09:12 AM

I don't know how many words Inuit, or English, has for snow. But in the UK just now, rain is definitely a four letter word, and I could think of a few others.

Subject: RE: Folklore: English names for Ice & snow?
From: Mr Red
Date: 02 Jul 07 - 09:52 AM

flood?

Subject: RE: Folklore: English names for Ice & snow?
From: Mr Red
Date: 02 Jul 07 - 09:57 AM

"on the rocks" - didn't take long to reach for the booze.

permafrost

Any climbers out there? - skiers ? must be a few specialist terms.

Subject: RE: Folklore: English names for Ice & snow?
From: Mr Red
Date: 02 Jul 07 - 10:01 AM

sheet ice , ice shelf - does tundra qualify? or yet snow line?

Subject: RE: Folklore: English names for Ice & snow?
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 02 Jul 07 - 11:06 AM

Words arise to fill needs. Skiers have corn snow, sugar snow, black ice etc.

Subject: RE: Folklore: English names for Ice & snow?
From: Desdemona
Date: 02 Jul 07 - 11:15 AM

Now obsolete, but found in "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," among other places:

Snitter: [Of obscure origin: cf. SNITE n.2]

intr. Of snow: To fall. Hence snittering ppl. a.

13.. Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 2003 ye snawe snitered ful snart, at snayped ye wylde. c1400 Anturs of Arth. vii, Thay ran to the roches,..For the snyterand [Douce sneterand] snaue, that snaypely hom snellus. 1888 ADDY Sheffield Gloss. 227 Snitter, to snow.

When we hear the snow or sleet pelting against the windows in the winter, we always comment that it's "snittering ful snart!"

~D

Subject: RE: Folklore: English names for Ice & snow?
From: Bert
Date: 02 Jul 07 - 11:15 AM

Whatever you call it it's all "bleedin taters".

Subject: RE: Folklore: English names for Ice & snow?
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 02 Jul 07 - 05:54 PM

Whenever anyone tells me the Inuit have 30 or 40 or however many words for snow, I point out that English has about as many words for feces: excrement, poo, turd, scat, number two, dog-, cow-, bird-, bat-, horse-, crap, etc., etc.

Subject: RE: Folklore: English names for Ice & snow?
From: terrier
Date: 02 Jul 07 - 06:02 PM

Or to put it another way,Gerry:
Equipoo
Canipoo
Bovipoo
etc

Subject: RE: Folklore: English names for Ice & snow?
From: Gurney
Date: 03 Jul 07 - 12:56 AM

At sea there are Bergy Bits.

Subject: RE: Folklore: English names for Ice & snow?
From: cookster
Date: 03 Jul 07 - 11:19 PM

runoff

Subject: RE: Folklore: English names for Ice & snow?
From: Mr Red
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 03:35 AM

surely run-off is above 0 degC

glacier

Subject: RE: Folklore: English names for Ice & snow?
From: goatfell
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 04:10 AM

in Scotland we say SNAW, or if very posh SNOW

Subject: RE: Folklore: English names for Ice & snow?
From: GUEST,buspassed
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 04:36 AM

After yesterday evenings freak weather in sarf Lon'on how about bleedin' summer snow?!

Subject: RE: Folklore: English names for Ice & snow?
From: GUEST,HughM
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 08:07 AM

Dry ice is solid carbon dioxide, so not ice at all.
   Ice which is in a thin layer coating everything is known to mountaineers, including English ones, as verglas. (German: verglasen, to glaze.)