Everything is dS: Inuit words for snow not a hoax (Fannish Fifty #20)

Tina Carter posted this Scientific American article, about "lexical elaboration" and the number of Inuktitut words for snow, to the Fraser/Kowalski Facebook group with a link. Turns out, while there may not be 100, or 40, words for snow in Inuktitut - there are still a lot!

The original post may be to a private group so I've linked to each item separately.

Anyway, "lexical elaboration" is fascinating... And also totally makes sense. Plus, the Inuit aren't the only ones to have multiple words for snow in their language... We (in American English) have a few, too, which I've certainly heard not just from weather forecasters on local Chicago news, but also among just regular people (and I use many of them myself): snow, sleet/"freezing rain", flurries, snowflake, snowsquall, blizzard, etc.

Like, if it's snowing but only slowly, lightly, and almost lazily (whether big fluffy flakes, or wispy, tiny flakes), the word we (and TV meteorologists) use is "flurries."

Example:

Person 1 [looking out window at work]: Hey, it's snowing out!

Person 2: Oh no! Rush hour traffic will be horrible!

Person 1: Nah, it's just flurries - they don't stick; it'll be okay.