Word-Wednesday for February 9, 2022

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday, February 9, 2022, the sixth Wednesday of the year, the eighth Wednesday of winter, and the 40 day of the year, with 325 days remaining.


Wannaska Nature Update for February 9, 2022
More on Snow
All snow is not created equal. How snow crystals form depends on atmospheric conditions and what happens to them as they fall from cloud to ground. Once snow is on the ground, the snowpack assumes different qualities that depend on temperature changes, wind, or how long the snow has been on the ground. Cryonotologists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center classify types https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/snow/science/types.html of snow crystals, snowfall, snowpack, and snow formations.

Here are a few of their more interesting snow vocabulary words:

• firn: /firn/ rounded, well-bonded snow that is older than one year and has a density greater than 550 kilograms per cubic meter, or 55 percent.
• graupel: / ˈgrau̇-pəl/ snowflakes that become rounded, opaque pellets ranging from 2 to 5 millimeters (0.1 to 0.2 inches) in diameter. They form as ice crystals fall through supercooled cloud droplets, which are below freezing but remain a liquid. The cloud droplets then freeze to the crystals, forming a lumpy mass. Graupel is sometimes mistaken for hail, but tends to have a texture that is softer and more crumbly. Graupel is sometimes also called snow pellets.
• megadune: /ˈmeɡ-ə-d(y)o͞on/ giant dunes of snow in Antarctica composed of large snow crystals measuring up to 2 centimeters (3/4 inch) across.
• névé: /nā-vā/ young, granular snow that has been partially melted, refrozen and compacted; névé that survives a full melt season is called firn. This type of snow is associated with glacier formation.
• penitent: /ˈpen-ə-tnt/ tall, thin, closely-spaced pinnacles of hardened snow ranging in height from a few centimeters to a few meters (a few inches to a few feet). Fields of penitents can develop over glaciated and snow-covered areas, particularly in arid regions, such as the Dry Andes or in the mountains surrounding Death Valley in California.
• sastrugi: /sə-ˈstro͞o-ɡē/ occur when wind erodes or deposits snow in irregular grooves and ridges. Sastrugi sometimes result in delicate and fragile snow formations.
• snowburst: /snō bərst/ a very intense shower of snow, often of short duration, that greatly restricts visibility and produces periods of rapid snow accumulation.

February 9 Nordhem Lunch: 

OVEN FRIED CHICKEN DINNER
w/ Mashed Potatoes & Gravy
CREAMY POTATO SOUP
w/ Choice of Sandwich


Earth/Moon Almanac for February 9, 2021
Sunrise: 7:42am; Sunset: 5:34pm; 3 minutes, 16 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 11:24am; Moonset: 2:30am, waxing gibbous, 54% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for February 9, 2021
                Average            Record              Today
High             17                     44                     26
Low              -7                   -45                      0


February 9 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Cut the Cord Day
• National Toothache Day
• National Bagel and Lox Day
• Read in the Bathtub Day
• National Pizza Day

February 9 Word Riddle
Why do the French typically eat only one egg?*


February 9 Word Pun
A librarian walks into a bar and asks for a book on irony.


February 9 Etymology Word of the Week

February 9 Notable Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1891 First shipment of asparagus arrives in San Francisco from Sacramento.
• 1895 William Morgan presents his new sport "Mintonette" to the world at Springfield College, Massachusetts, later renames it "Volleyball".
• 1922 Snow fall on Mauna Loa, Hawaii.
• 1926 Teaching theory of evolution forbidden in Atlanta, Georgia schools.
• 1992 Fastest yodeler - 22 tones/15 falsetto in 1 second by Thomas School of Germany.
• 1995 Irish music and dance show Riverdance first opens in Dublin, Ireland.
• 1997 The Simpsons airs 167th episode; longest-running animated series in cartoon history.

February 9 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1441 Ali Sjir Neva'i [Fani], Turkish poet/author of Mahbub al-kulub.
• 1602 Franciscus van de Enden, Flemish jesuit/free-thinker/tutor of Spinoza.
• 1744 Amos Bull, American composer.
• 1756 Karel Blazej Kopriva, Czech organist and composer.
• 1780 Walenty Karol Kratzer, Polish composer.
• 1783 Vasily Zhukovsky, Russian poet.
• 1866 George Ade, American playwright, writer, and humorist.
• 1871 Fran Saleški Finžgar, Slovene folk writer.
• 1874 Amy Lowell, American poet and critic.
• 1892 Tommy Treichel, American professional wrestler.
• 1909 Carmen Miranda, Portuguese vocalist and actress.
• 1923 Brendan Behan, Irish author and poet.
• 1932 Gerhard Richter, German painter.
• 1936 "Stompin' Tom" Connors, Canadian country and folk singer-songwriter.
• 1940 J. M. Coetzee, South African novelist.
• 1942 Miloš Štědroň, Czech composer.
• 1944 Alice Walker, American novelist.

Words-I-Looked-Up-This-Week Writer's Challenge
Make a single sentence (or poem or pram) from the following words:

• boscage: /ˈbäs-kij/ n., a growth of trees or shrubs; thicket.
• cearwylm or carwielm: /KAIR-wilm/ n., a flood of cares; anxiety or sorrow.
• elaterium: /el-ə-ˈti-rē-əm/ n., a purgative substance precipitated as a fine powder from the juice of the squirting cucumber on spontaneous evaporation and used in the form of yellowish cakes.
• forswunke: /fohr-SWUHNK/ adj., extremely exhausted after physical exertion.
• gamboge: /ɡamˈ-bo͞oZH/ n., a gum resin produced by various eastern Asian trees, used as a yellow pigment and in medicine as a purgative.
• harmattan: /ˌhär-mə-ˈtän/ n., a very dry, dusty easterly or northeasterly wind on the West African coast, occurring from December to February.
• irenic: /īˈ-rēn-ik/ adj., aiming or aimed at peace.
• keeks: /kēks/ pl. n., a surreptitious glance.
• ostreophagy: /ɒ-strɪ-ˈɒ-fəd-ʒɪ/ n., the consumption of oysters.
• redivivus: /ˌrɛd-ə-ˈvaɪ-vəs/ adj., brought back to life; come back to life, revived.

February 9, 2021 Word-Wednesday Feature
snow
/snō/ n., atmospheric water vapor frozen into ice crystals and falling in light white flakes or lying on the ground as a white layer. As noted in today's Wannaska Nature Update, the North American English language words for snow derive from chiefly from scientific descriptions and do not commonly enter the vocabulary of most Wannaskans. Other peoples who spend greater amounts of the year with frozen precipitation have more words for snow. Famously, the Inuit, Yupik, and related peoples who live much farther north of Wannaska have fifty-three practical, everyday words for snow, including pukak for powder snow that looks like salt crystals, and matsaaruti for the slushy snow that is useful for icing a sled’s runners. The Inupiaq dialect of the Alaskan Inuits has about seventy words used to just to describe sea-ice. After all, who dares venture out on auniq (ice that looks like Swiss cheese)?

The Swedes have twenty-five words for snow, including kramsnö - snow that can be easily shaped into snowballs. Icelanders have forty-six words for snow, including krap - slushy snow mixed with water. Then there are the Sami, who live in the far north of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia, and who traditionally lived as fishers, trappers, and reindeer herders. The Sami have at least one hundred and eighty practical words for snow in their everyday vocabulary, including cahki - a hard snowball, the kind that only sadistic people use in snowball fights; guoldu - a cloud of snow which blows up from the ground when there is a hard frost without very much wind; skavvi - crust of ice on snow, formed in the evening after the sun has thawed the top of the snow during the day; moarri - the kind of travel surface where frozen snow or ice breaks and cuts the legs of animals like horses or reindeer; and, of course, ciegar - a snowfield which has been trampled and dug up by reindeer.

Which language has the most words for snow? If you believe the researchers at the University of Glasgow, it's the Scots, who claim four hundred twenty-one words for snow. Scots language lecturer Dr. Susan Rennie told the BBC, “Weather has been a vital part of people’s lives in Scotland for centuries. The number and variety of words in the language show how important it was for our ancestors to communicate about the weather, which could so easily affect their livelihoods.” Debate rages in the snowlands, but giving the diabhal his doo, here are a few Scot words for snow:

• blin-drift: drifting snow.
• feefle: snow swirling around a corner.
• flindrikin: a light snow shower.
• glush: melting snow.
• ground-gru: half-liquid snow or ice formed in early spring floating along the surface of a river.
• skelf: a large snowflake.
• snaw-broo: melted snow.
• snaw-ghast: a ghost seen in the snow.
• snaw-pouther: fine driving snow.
• sneesl: to begin to rain or snow.
• snow-smoor: suffocation by snow.
• spitters: small drops or flakes of wind-driven rain or snow.
• unbrak: the beginning of a thaw.

Please consult with WannaskaWriter for proper Scot pronunciations.


From A Year with Rilke, February 9 Entry
Listeners at Last, from Uncollected Poems

Oh when, when, when will we ever have enough
of whining and defining? Haven’t champions
in the weaving of words been here already?
Why keep on trying?

Are not people perpetually, over and over and over again,
assaulted by books as by buzzing alarms?
When, between two books, the quieting sky appears,
or merely a patch of earth at evening—
rejoice.

Louder than all the storms, louder than all the oceans,
people have been crying out:
What abundance of quietude
the Universe must yield, if we screaming humans
can hear the crickets, and if the stars
in the screamed-at ether
can appease our hearts!

Let the farthest, oldest, most ancient
ancestors speak to us!
And let us be listeners at last, humans
finally able to hear.

Be better than yesterday,
learn a new word today,
try to stay out of trouble - at least until tomorrow,
and write when you have the time.

*because in France, one egg is un oeuf.