And etc…

As it gets to actually be winter here in Logan, I’m noticing a linguistic thing that’s irritating me. No, it’s not how Utahns like to drop the middle consonant of a word. For example, say “kitten” without pronouncing the “t” sound in the middle. Annoying, but not truly bothersome. No, my beef has to do with snow. Or, to be more precise, how snow has morphed into something it is not. In Utah, snow is “powder.” Why? Because Utahns believe snow has magical abilities, I think.

I understand that people in different parts of the country (or other countries) have different words for a lot of stuff. However, none of the other words irritate me very much. I don’t care that Canadians call the trunk of a car a “boot.” Whatever. It’s a car. They can call it a shoe if they want. It’s still a useful thing to have. Snow, however, manages to offend me on various levels, which makes me quite defensive about what we’re calling it. Snow is snow. Snow can fall (or dance its way twixt the air and the ground) in a lot of ways that can be described with lots of verbs and adverbs. Maybe it’s flurrying outside. I understand this. Snow can have adjectives; it can be a crappy snow, or a cold snow…these words make sense.

However, snow itself cannot suddenly morph into a new noun. Nouns define the nature of something. Snow does not fundamentally change its very nature, in a sense, and become NOT snow, because of its type. Hence, snow is NOT powder. Powder is powder. Snow can be powdery, but it is not powder. When the snow is dryish and fluffy, it is still snow. I do not care what one plans to do in the snow, this does not change the fact that snow is snow. And do you realize that the more I say the word “snow,” the less positive I am that the word “snow” actually has any meaning at all? And this is my rant. If Utahns insist on calling snow “powder,” I might just start calling it crystal meth. That’s powdery, too, right? (Note: I’m actually not quite sure. I wasn’t that popular in high school.)