New Word #89: Snow

Image by Daniel Roberts from Pixabay

The first snow of the season fell last night, only one to two inches of dust for Edison, but from the news I learned that other places got much more. There was a 24 hour pile-up of traffic in Virginia two days ago. Really have to make sure to keep some food and water in the car just in case.

There are so many words related with snow that I don’t know where to start. There are words related with snow’s geometry: a hexagonal shape, a prism, a crystal. There are slang related with snow. Google said that snowflake is used to describe a person perceived as overly sensitive and fragile, often in a mocking way.

Snow (Or Winter) Related

chionophobia: intense fear of snow

snowblind: temporarily unable to see or having impaired vision because of the intense reflection of sunlight from snow.

hypothermia: the condition of having an abnormally low body temperature, typically one that is dangerously low. hyperthermia: the condition of having a body temperature greatly above normal.

chilblain: a painful, itching swelling on the skin, typically on a hand or foot, caused by poor circulation in the skin when exposed to cold. Please be careful with this word that it has only one “l” not two.

frostbite: Frostbite is an injury caused by freezing of the skin and underlying tissues.

wind chill: the cooling effect of wind blowing on a surface.

cold snap: a sudden, brief spell of cold weather.

Snow Storm

lake effect: Lake-effect snow is produced during cooler atmospheric conditions when a cold air mass moves across long expanses of warmer lake water.

bomb cyclone: It is a powerful, rapidly intensifying storm associated with a sudden and significant drop in atmospheric pressure.

blizzard: a severe snowstorm with high winds and low visibility.

ice storm: (North America) a storm of freezing rain that leaves a coating of ice.

Snowmageddon or Snowpocalypse: nickname for snow storm

Nor’easter: a storm or wind blowing from the northeast, especially in New England.

sleet, slush: Sleet means a form of precipitation consisting of ice pellets, often mixed with rain or snow. Slush means partially melted snow or ice.

bundle up: to dress warmly.

nippy: (informal) cold. This is not to be confused with snippy, which means curt or sharp, especially in a condescending way.

Snow Sports

snow cone: (North America) a paper cup filled with fruit-flavored crushed ice. This is a food, not a sport, but I don’t know which category to put this phrase.

ski, sled, skate, snowboard, tubing, snowball: These are all snow and ice sports, among which I only participated in sled and snowball. Google says if you go to the top of a snowy hill and ride an inflatable inner tube downhill, that activity is referred to as snow tubing. It feels like sled and tubing is very similar.

ice fishing: fish through holes in the ice on a frozen lake or river. Many years ago, when we drove to Maine in December, I saw people ice fishing on a lake.

Driving In Snow

snow in: To cause someone or something to be unable to leave a building or area due to the snow. This phrase is often heard on a snowy day. “I am snowed in.”

snow day: a day on which a school or other institution is closed due to heavy snowfall or other extreme winter weather.

dig, shovel, scrape: I think every driver has an intense dislike of snow. The intensity varies but the dislike is universal. Whenever it snows, one has to dig one’s car out of snow with a shovel; one has to scrape the ice off the windshield. It’s fun.

Snow Phrases

walk on thin ice: do something risky that may have serious or unpleasant consequences.

snow owl, snow goose, snow leopard: these animals have snowy furs and live in arctic circles or Himalayas.

perfect storm: a particularly violent storm arising from a rare combination of adverse meteorological factors.

let it snow: (American) don’t interfere.

a snowball’s chance in hell: used in negative statements to say that something is extremely unlikely or impossible.