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So, the Innuit may not have 100 words for "snow" after all. But the Hacker's Dictionary really does contain 216 synonyms for "broken". [*] https://hackersdicti

So, the Innuit may not have 100 words for "snow" after all. But the Hacker's Dictionary really does contain 216 synonyms for "broken". [*] https://hackersdictionary.com/html/index.html https://hackersdictionary.com/html/index.html

Tor3 1y ago
Boas claimed in 1884 that the Inuit language on Baffin Island had four words for snow. The "100" was inflated through re-telling. And that number has been thoroughly refuted. Of course. Inuit languages don't have 100 different roots for snow. As for "four".. well, English has several too (snow, sleet, slush, firn..), and most other languages from regions where snow exists have a number of such words. Nothing new there.
- ipaddr 1y ago
  They have a few. Aput: Snow on the ground. Qana: Falling snow. Piqsirpoq: Drifting snow. Kaniq: Frost. Kanevvluk: Fine snow. Muruaneq: Soft deep snow. Nutaryuk: Fresh snow. Pirta: Blizzard. Qengaruk: Snow bank.
  - antihipocrat 1y ago
    Not arguing against the idea that the Inuit have many more words for snow. But in english their are many commonly understood equivalents. Even more if you're into the snow sport scene that may reach Inuit levels. Common words off the top of my head: Snow on the ground: Snowpack, hardpack, powder, crust, crud, piste Falling snow: snowing, sleet, blizzard, snowstorm. Drifting snow: snowdrift. Frost: frost. Modern scene lingo Pow, corduroy, granular, chunder, cornice etc
    - kevin_thibedeau 1y ago
      Graupel
      - ted_dunning 1y ago
        Don't forget sastrugi. A climbing partner and I counted over 60 words for snow in (our idiosyncratic) English. So, I guess there Inuit, English speakers and mountaineers as three different populations.
    - morsch 1y ago
      A linguistic sub group of English that literally immerses itself in snow also having many words for snow makes sense.
    - janderson215 1y ago
      To be fair to the Inuit language, they never rode groomers.
    - vintermann 1y ago
      Just shows the futility of this approach. Yes, you can find words, but do you use them? Is that a filly to you, or is it really just a horse? An extreme example is the "it's called a zygyzgy of ptarmigans"-type alternative words for flocks of specific birds in English, which are basically made up and unused.
      - ralfd 1y ago
        If I ski and want to communicate to another skier the weather/piste: Yes
        vintermann 1y ago
        Yes, but the point is, some use them, most don't. The existence of the words means that someone using the language cared enough about the difference to distinguish - but nothing about how few or many they were. Arguably the existence of niche words could even mean less, as in the flock words example, words that have more or less been invented as pure word games.
      - tikhonj 1y ago
        Those grouping words are silly trivia, but if you want to see folks using lots of specialized snow-words casually, just hang out on the skiing subreddit :) (Well, maybe during the North American skiing season more than in late May.)
  - leke 1y ago
    I think Finnish also has quite many.
deepspace 1y ago
That is somehow fitting, given that the 'maintainer' is also thoroughly broken.
Izkata 1y ago
Looks like an older version (4.3.0) of The Jargon File page I'm aware of (4.4.7): http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/ http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/

Tor3 1y ago

Boas claimed in 1884 that the Inuit language on Baffin Island had four words for snow. The "100" was inflated through re-telling. And that number has been thoroughly refuted. Of course. Inuit languages don't have 100 different roots for snow. As for "four".. well, English has several too (snow, sleet, slush, firn..), and most other languages from regions where snow exists have a number of such words. Nothing new there.

ipaddr 1y ago
They have a few. Aput: Snow on the ground. Qana: Falling snow. Piqsirpoq: Drifting snow. Kaniq: Frost. Kanevvluk: Fine snow. Muruaneq: Soft deep snow. Nutaryuk: Fresh snow. Pirta: Blizzard. Qengaruk: Snow bank.
- antihipocrat 1y ago
  Not arguing against the idea that the Inuit have many more words for snow. But in english their are many commonly understood equivalents. Even more if you're into the snow sport scene that may reach Inuit levels. Common words off the top of my head: Snow on the ground: Snowpack, hardpack, powder, crust, crud, piste Falling snow: snowing, sleet, blizzard, snowstorm. Drifting snow: snowdrift. Frost: frost. Modern scene lingo Pow, corduroy, granular, chunder, cornice etc
  - kevin_thibedeau 1y ago
    Graupel
    - ted_dunning 1y ago
      Don't forget sastrugi. A climbing partner and I counted over 60 words for snow in (our idiosyncratic) English. So, I guess there Inuit, English speakers and mountaineers as three different populations.
  - morsch 1y ago
    A linguistic sub group of English that literally immerses itself in snow also having many words for snow makes sense.
  - janderson215 1y ago
    To be fair to the Inuit language, they never rode groomers.
  - vintermann 1y ago
    Just shows the futility of this approach. Yes, you can find words, but do you use them? Is that a filly to you, or is it really just a horse? An extreme example is the "it's called a zygyzgy of ptarmigans"-type alternative words for flocks of specific birds in English, which are basically made up and unused.
    - ralfd 1y ago
      If I ski and want to communicate to another skier the weather/piste: Yes
      - vintermann 1y ago
        Yes, but the point is, some use them, most don't. The existence of the words means that someone using the language cared enough about the difference to distinguish - but nothing about how few or many they were. Arguably the existence of niche words could even mean less, as in the flock words example, words that have more or less been invented as pure word games.
    - tikhonj 1y ago
      Those grouping words are silly trivia, but if you want to see folks using lots of specialized snow-words casually, just hang out on the skiing subreddit :) (Well, maybe during the North American skiing season more than in late May.)
- leke 1y ago
  I think Finnish also has quite many.

deepspace 1y ago

That is somehow fitting, given that the 'maintainer' is also thoroughly broken.

Izkata 1y ago

Looks like an older version (4.3.0) of The Jargon File page I'm aware of (4.4.7): http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/ http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/