Wiktionary

snow

See also: Snow and snów

English

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WOTD – 24 December 2024

Etymology 1

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A snow-covered road (noun sense 1) in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
 
Trees in the Pierian Mountains, Greece, covered in snow (noun sense 1).
 
Snow (noun sense 1) in Victoria, Australia, at about 350 metres elevation. Outside certain mountainous regions, snow is rare in Australia.

The noun is derived from Middle English snaw, snou, snow (“snow; accumulation of snow; snowfall; snowstorm; whiteness”),[1] from Old English snāw (“snow”), from Proto-West Germanic *snaiw (“snow”), from Proto-Germanic *snaiwaz (“snow”),[2] from Proto-Indo-European *snóygʷʰos (“snow”), from *sneygʷʰ- (“to snow”).

The verb is derived from Middle English snouen (“to snow; (figurative) to shower”), from snou, snow (noun) (see above)[3][4] + -en (suffix forming the infinitive of verbs).[5] Displaced Old English snīwan, whence English snew (obsolete).

Verb sense 2.3.2 (“to convince or hoodwink (someone)”) probably refers to a person being blinded or confused by a snowstorm.

cognates

Pronunciation

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Noun

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snow (countable and uncountable, plural snows)

  2. (uncountable) The partly frozen, crystalline state of water that falls from the atmosphere as precipitation in flakes; also, the falling of such flakes; and the accumulation of them on the ground or on objects as a white layer.
    1. (countable) An instance of the falling of snow (sense 1); a snowfall; also, a snowstorm.
      We have had several heavy snows this year.
    2. (countable) A period of time when snow falls; a winter.
      • 1838 October, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “[Earlier Poems.] Burial of the Minnisink.”, in Voices of the Night, Cambridge, Mass.: […] John Owen, published 1839, →OCLC, stanza 4, page 53:
        They sand, that by his native bowers / He stood, in the last moon of flowers, / And thirty snows had not yet shed / Their glory on the warrior's head; […]
      • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XXII, page 37:
        The path by which we twain did go, / Which led by tracts that pleased us well, / Thro' four sweet years arose and fell, / From flower to flower, from snow to snow.
    3. (countable) An accumulation or spread of snow.
  3. Something resembling snow (sense 1) in appearance or colour.
    1. (countable, cooking) A dish or component of a dish resembling snow, especially one made by whipping egg whites until creamy.
      apple snow    lemon snow
    2. (uncountable)
      1. The white colour of snow.
        snow:  
      2. (figurative) Clusters of white flowers.
        • 1859, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], “The Workshop”, in Adam Bede […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book first, pages 1–2:
          A scent of pine-wood from a tent-like pile of planks outside the open door mingled itself with the scent of the elder-bushes which were spreading their summer snow close to the open window opposite; […]
      4. (figurative) The moving pattern of random dots seen on a radar or television screen, etc., when no transmission signal is being received or when there is interference.
        Synonym: shash
        Near-synonym: static
        • 1977, John Cheever, Falconer (A Borzoi Book), New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, →ISBN, page 209:
          I took my TV over on the first trip. I got a beauty. It's four years old, color, but when I had a little snow and asked the repairman to come in, he told me never, never turn this set in for a new one. They don't make them like this anymore, he said. He got rid of the snow and all he charged me was two dollars.
      5. (figurative) Sea foam; sea spray.
      6. (figurative) Also in the plural: white hair on an (older) person's head.
      7. (figurative, poetic) White marble.
        • 1848, Philip James Bailey, “Proëm”, in Festus: A Poem, 3rd edition, London: William Pickering, →OCLC, page vii:
          Ere now marmoreal floods had spread their couch / Of perdurable snow, or granite wrought / Its skyward impulse from earth's hearth of fire / Up to insanest heights.
      8. (figurative, slang) Money, especially silver coins.
      9. (figurative, slang, dated) White linen which has been washed.
      10. (chemistry) Chiefly with a descriptive word: a substance other than water resembling snow when frozen; specifically, frozen carbon dioxide.
        • 2008, Neal Asher, “Alien Archaeology”, in The Gabble and Other Stories, London: Tor, →ISBN, page 144:
          Clad in a coldsuit Jael trudged through a thin layer of CO₂ snow towards the gates of the Arena.
      11. (marine biology) Clipping of marine snow (“sinking organic detritus in the ocean”).
        • 2012, Caspar Henderson, “Sea Butterfly”, in The Book of Barely Imagined Beings: A 21st Century Bestiary, 1st American edition, Chicago, Ill.; London: University of Chicago Press, published 2013, →ISBN, marginal note, page 286:
          Lower down, in the 95 percent of the ocean where light does not penetrate, many living things feed on ‘marine snow’, the steady drizzle of particles of dead matter, whitish in colour, gradually sinking from the euphotic zone above. Other animals then feed on the ‘snow’ eaters.
      12. (originally US, slang) Cocaine; also (less frequently), heroin or morphine.
        Synonyms: see Thesaurus:cocaine
Derived terms
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Translations
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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb

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snow (third-person singular simple present snows, present participle snowing, simple past snowed or (dialectal) snew, past participle snowed or (dialectal) snown)

A video showing it snowing (verb sense 1) in Hockenheim, Germany.
  2. (intransitive, impersonal) Preceded by the dummy subject it: to have snow (noun sense 1) fall from the atmosphere.
    It is snowing.    It started to snow.
    • 1530 July 28 (Gregorian calendar), Iohan Palsgraue [i.e., John Palsgrave], “The Table of Verbes”, in Lesclarcissement de la langue francoyse⸝ […], [London]: […] [Richard Pynson] fynnysshed by Iohan Haukyns, →OCLC, 3rd boke, folio ccclxv, verso, column 2; reprinted Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, October 1972, →OCLC:
      In wynter whan it ſnoweth it is good ſyttynge by a good fyre: […]
    • 1841 February–November, Charles Dickens, “Barnaby Rudge. Chapter 16.”, in Master Humphrey’s Clock, volume III, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 21:
      Then there was the watch with staff and lanthorn crying the hour, and the kind of weather; and those who woke up at his voice and turned them round in bed, were glad to hear it rained, or snowed, or blew, or froze, for very comfort's sake.
    • 1945 July (date written), “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!”, Sammy Cahn (lyrics), Jule Styne (music), performed by Vaughn Monroe, Camden, N.J.: RCA Victor, published 1945, →OCLC:
      Oh! the weather outside is frightful / But the fire is so delightful / And since we've no place to go, / Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!
      The score was published as Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!, New York, N.Y.: Edwin H. Morris & Company, 1945, →OCLC.
    1. (also figurative) Of a thing: to fall like snow.
  3. (transitive)
    1. To cause (something) to fall like snow.
    2. To cover or scatter (a place or thing) with, or as if with, snow.
      • 1635 November 8 (first performance; Gregorian calendar; published 1635), Thomas Heywood, “Londini Sinus Salutis, or, Londons Harbour of Health, and Happinesse. […]. The Speech of Mars.”, in The Dramatic Works of Thomas Heywood […], volume IV, London: John Pearson […], published 1874, →OCLC, page 295:
        Even the Horſe wee ride / Vnſhod, would founder, who takes greateſt pride, / When the moſt curb'd, and playing with the bit, / Hee ſnowes the ground [with froth from his mouth], and doth the Spurre forgit.
      • a. 1823 (date written), Homer, “Hymn to Mercury. Translated from the Greek of Homer.”, in Percy Bysshe Shelley, transl., edited by Mary W[ollstonecraft] Shelley, Posthumous Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley, London: […] [C. H. Reynell] for John and Henry L[eigh] Hunt, […], published 1824, →OCLC, stanza XCIV, page 326:
        There are three Fates, three virgin Sisters, who / Rejoicing in their wind-outspeeding wings, / Their heads with flour snowed over white and new, / Sit in a vale round which Parnassus flings / Its circling skirts— […]
    3. (figurative)
      1. To cause (hair) to turn white; also, to cause (someone) to have white hair.
        • 1608, [Guillaume de Salluste] Du Bartas, “[Du Bartas His Second VVeeke, […]. Noah. […].] The Colonies. The III. Part of the II. Day of the II. Week.”, in Josuah Sylvester, transl., Du Bartas His Deuine Weekes and Workes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Humfrey Lownes [and are to be sold by Arthur Iohnson […]], published 1611, →OCLC, page 355:
          Ah, courteous England, thy kinde arms I ſee / VVide-stretched out to ſaue and vvelcom me. / Thou (tender Mother) vvilt not ſuffer Age / To ſnovve my locks in Forrein Pilgrimage: […]
      3. (originally US, slang) To convince or hoodwink (someone), especially by presenting confusing information or through flattery.
        1. (poker) To bluff (an opponent) in draw poker by playing a hand which has no value, or by refusing to draw any cards.
          • 1999 May, Mason Malmuth, “Free Bets and Other Topics”, in Gambling Theory and Other Topics, Las Vegas, Nev.: [Creel Printers for] Two Plus Two Publishing, →ISBN, part 2 (Theory in Practice), page 84:
            [T]he Adventurer knew that despite what [Mike] Caro had said, there was a good chance that he was "snowing" (playing a hand that had no value and could win only if his opponent threw his cards away). Notice that his creates a dilemma for the Adventurer. If he bets and Caro is on a snow, he will lose a bet, but if he checks and his opponent is not on a snow, he also will lose a bet.
      4. (US, slang, chiefly passive voice) To cause (someone) to be under the effect of a drug; to dope, to drug.
Conjugation
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Conjugation of snow
infinitive (to) snow
present tense past tense
1st-person singular snow snowed
2nd-person singular snow, snowest† snowed, snowedst†
3rd-person singular snows, snoweth† snowed
plural snow
subjunctive snow snowed
imperative snow —
participles snowing snowed

†Archaic or obsolete.

Derived terms
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Translations
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See also

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See also

Etymology 2

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From Low German Snaue, or Dutch snauw, from Low German Snau (“a snout, a beak”). See snout.

 
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
 
A painting of a naval snow by Charles Brooking, from 1759

Alternative forms

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snaw

Noun

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snow (plural snows)

  1. (nautical, historical) A two-masted, square-rigged vessel, trysail-mast stepped immediately abaft the main mast.
See also
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References

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  1. ^ “snou, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ “snow, n.1”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2024; “snow, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  3. ^ “snouen, v.(1)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  4. ^ “snow, v.”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2024; “snow, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  5. ^ “-en, suf.(3)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Further reading

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Anagrams

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Middle English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Old English snāw, from Proto-West Germanic *snaiw, from Proto-Germanic *snaiwaz.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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snow (plural snowes)

  1. snow (frozen water as precipitation, either while falling or once landed)
  2. snow-white (a snowy white)
  3. The temperature where snow appears.
  4. A blanket of snow; a snowing.

Derived terms

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Descendants

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  • English: snow
  • Scots: snaw
  • Yola: sneow, sneew, snowe, snow

References

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Spanish

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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snow m (uncountable)

  1. snowboarding

Derived terms

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Yola

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Noun

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snow

  1. Alternative form of sneow
    • 1867, “THE WEDDEEN O BALLYMORE”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 4, page 96:
      An neeat wooden trenshoorès var whiter than snow.
      And neat wooden trenchers far whiter than snow.

References

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  • Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 96
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  NODES
Note 2
Verify 8