On Jan 6, 7:23*pm, Dawlish wrote:
On Jan 6, 7:12*pm, Dawlish wrote:
On Jan 6, 6:16*pm, "Martin Rowley"
wrote:
"George Booth" wrote in message
...
"ronaldbutton" wrote in message
...
Whilst trying to keep the weather reports at frenzy level ,the Beeb
have mentioned several times today that Britain has been struck by
BLIZZARDS ,.
Whilst I know it is normal to read out the list of blocked roads in
the Peak District and the Cairngorms in order that we can all share
in the disaster zones,I'd have thought that snow ,no matter how
heavy can hardly be described as a blizzard when winds are less
than 5 MPH all over the SouthEast . The cub reporters should hold
fire with their adjectives cos soon they might run out....
RonB
Fully agree Ron. As I recall the media began using 'blizzard' in
1962/3 and it is now applied to any fall of snow-retrospectively as
well. I doubt if in all my years of living/travelling around the
British Isles and beyond that I've ever experienced a blizzard in
the true sense of the word. Similarly 'whiteout' (mentioned in a
later post) is a popular word with journalists and those of vivid
meteorological imagination. Now don't even get me started on the use
and misuse of 'Gulf Stream' - a favourite of the writers of travel
brochures for our western shores.
At this point I must recommend some useful reading. 'Meteorological
Glossary' published by HMSO (1991)a really useful book available now
from Amazon starting at £3.95
--
George in Epping, West Essex (107m asl)
www.eppingweather.co.uk
www.winter1947.co.uk
COL 36055
... the word 'blizzard' in English language use probably goes back to
the last decade of the 19th century. I have a note that it was used in
connection with the March 1891 snow event, possibly for the first time
in writing, though probably the word was around for a while before. It
is thought to be derived from the phrase (in German) " Der sturm kommt
blitzartig ", which, subject to correct by Colin, I believe to mean
'the storm coming/came lightning-like'.
Martin .
--
Martin Rowley
West Moors, East Dorset (UK): 17m (56ft) amsl
Lat: 50.82N * Long: 01.88W
NGR: SU 082 023- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -
The word may be older than you think, having its roots in the 1820's
in America, but not to describe anything meteorological. The first
written usage was in 1862, again in America.
http://www.answers.com/topic/blizzard-Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -
Then I went to my copy of the OED bible!
The OED states that the origin of the word is unknown, (though I too
favour "Blitz" as the origin - lightning), but was first used in the
US in 1829 to describe a sharp blow, knock, or a shot. The connotation
of wind and blinding snow came into usage in 1870.- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -
Then I did some more digging to verify, being a bit of an etymological
nerd and came up with this detailed and fascinating paper by Richard
Wild from the Univ. of Derby (no date) but can be found on the Torro
site:
http://www.torro.org.uk/TORRO/public...lizzarddef.doc
It has the same 1829 reference as the OED, but quotes Martin's German
phrase "Der sturm kommt
blitzartig" with the same translation as a possible origin, but the
paper says that the etymology is still speculative. It was certainly
in written use in several places by 1870.