Well, it’s December, dear readers. And for me, that marks the beginning of about six months of winter. As I write this, there is already a foot of snow in my backyard.
This got me thinking about that thing people say about the incredible number of words Inuit people have to describe snow. And I wondered how many words we have in English. It turns out that we have a lot. In fact, depending on how you define words that describe snow, English actually has more words than the Inuit languages.
So, today, I thought it would be fun to look at some of the English words for snow and tell you a bit about what they mean and where they come from.
Blizzard: A severe, sustained snowstorm with high winds. The origins are unknown, but blizzard first appeared in American English in the early 1800s.
Firn: Crystalline or…
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