Today’s winter offerings can be described as solid, liquid and something distinctly in between.
While there may not exactly be linguistic foundation for the popular myth that the Inuit have an extensive vocabulary for types of snow (its more complicated than that, apparently), one can take the concept as inspiration for developing a new set of words for what we’ve been getting lately. A few four letter ones come to mind immediately, but that’s not exactly what I mean here, nor are they new to our vocabulary.
According to Wikipedia, Eskimoan languages add suffixes to words, phrases, and even entire sentences. In this manner, it’s easy to create a practically unlimited number of new words. With that system, what can we call what’s happening outside now? There’ve been a few that have surfaced recently, including snowmaggedon and snowpocalypse.
Having just shoveled and dug out two cars, I might term the “hard-crusted slippery layer, covering a few inches of heavy wet snow which is now getting saturated with a light rain” the neologism Sleeticeishness. Or maybe Crunchslidingwetgloopy. While I’m sure this isn’t done in proper Eskimo-Aleut style, and clearly I’m lacking in Inuk finess, either one works for me.
Now that you’ve all either gotten where you’re going, or bagged the day and stayed home, anyone want to take a crack at inventing Baristaville-speak for the 2010/2011 winter weather? Tell us what you encountered out there this morning and give it a hybrid name, if you see fit. We’ll try to use the new vocabulary in future storms.
Regardless, we hope you all got to work, school, etc. safely. Hats off to NJ Transit and DeCamp, for what appeared to be a smooth morning commute.
Snowpocalyse?
Whatever you call it, it just ain’t nice. Why didn’t I buy in So. Cal. again?
Snow-tastrophe
And I-cy more in the forecast.
I was hating this winter before the damn ice storm. Now I’m beside myself. My husband got off to work early, the snow guy never came to plow, so now it’s me home with the kids and two cars parked at the foot of a steep ice-covered driveway that they can’t possibly negotiate. I’m trapped, suffering from SIAX (severe ice anxiety) syndrome.
There’s an actual name for that, Hildy: pagophobia, fear of ice or frost. I suffer from it as well.
I have it, too. I got trapped in Dunkin’ Donuts this morning because I was afraid to step down off the sidewalk. So I took the long way around through the slush. When I got to my car, the employees were all lined up watching me. It’s pathetic what I’m willing to go through for a DD coffee.
There are worse places to be trapped, Nellie. It’s a little known fact that D&D serves the best coffee around–far better than that highly corrosive brew they sell at Starbucks, which incidentally I use to clean the silver.
I’ve always found Starbuck’s Coffee to be right up there with battery acid.
I’ve gotten more tolerant of Starbucks in the last year or so, probably because that’s the only game in the mezzanine of my office building. So if you don’t want to venture outside (like today), you’re stuck. I just leave lots of room for milk.
I do wish they would come out with a brew that wasn’t so strong, though.
I wonder how many pagophobiacs are sitting in Starbucks now, afraid to leave.
I’m in texas now and i tell ya it doesn’t feel normal to have somewhat warm weather in January. What’s the opposite of pagophobia? Pagoamor.
Why is it that when I’m stuck in the house I hear my drawers calling “clean me .. clean me”?
POSTED BY Mrs Martta
Whatever you call it, it just ain’t nice. Why didn’t I buy in So. Cal. again?
….perhaps because you prefer ice storms to mudslides, earthquakes and forest fires?
Dag, a helpful tip: don’t forget to take your drawers off before you clean them.