It’s quafftide! Let’s firkytoodle under the clinkabells *
You can’t get too much winter in the winter, wrote the poet Robert Frost. And even winterphobes will admit that this season has a few good things going for it — glühwein (mulled wine) at the Christmas market, steaming bowls of hearty soup, long duvet days and giant woolly socks.
The Danish word ‘hygge’ has made it big this year, describing that cosiness and conviviality that can only come from hunkering down in winter-tide.
Yet what about other words to describe this season that took its name from an ancient word for ‘wet’ and ‘white’?
When it comes to expressing the joys (and occasional miseries) of wintertime, there’s a shiveringly good way to express it — whether you’re nesh, shrammed, taters, nithered or Baltic.
Here, SuSIE DENT, the lexicographer and the self-styled ‘woman in Dictionary Corner’ for the TV words and numbers quiz Countdown, offers some less well-known gems from the winter dictionary — all of which evoke for her this time of year . . .
APRICITY: Probably my favourite winterword of all. Apricity is the warmth of the sun on a chilly day. Its sister is ‘apricate’: to bask in the sun.
BRUME: A winter mist. The perfect word for the low-lying vapour that shrouds the land on a frosty morning. Its roots lie in the Romans’ word brumalis — ‘belonging to the winter’.
CLINKABELL: A pretty alternative to ‘icicle’, local to Somerset and the West Country. Devon also offers cockbell. ‘Icicle’ itself is made up of ‘ice’ and ‘ickle’, a frozen drop of water.
CRUMP: If you’re lucky enough to go walking across a wintry landscape, crumping is treading over lightly compressed snow.
DORMITIVE: Sleeping through the winter. usually applied to animals but also useful for some members of the human species (for example, teenagers!).
EGG NOG: A curious term (and an even more curious drink), but one with the unmistakable resonance of Christmas time. The ‘nog’ here was originally a particularly strong ale brewed in Norfolk — the type that goes straight to your noggin (head).
FIRKYTOODLING: A Victorian euphemism for a bit of kissing and cuddling, as might take place below a sprig of mistletoe.
FLOCOON: A small flake of snow. Flother is another term for a single snowflake.
FRORY: Frosty. This word perfectly conveys a bitterly cold day when you can no longer feel your hands. GLÖGG: What that Danish concept of hygge is all about. Glögg is a Scandinavian mulled wine, sweetened with honey, almonds, raisins and spices. Its name suits its purpose so beautifully.
GWENDERS: A disagreeable tingling in your extremities during the cold weather. Quite where this ancient Cornish word comes from no one knows, although ‘ wonders’ was another word for the same unpleasant sensation.
HELLER: A dark word for an intensely cold winter’s day, or a bitter winter storm. It is indeed related to the dwelling place of the dead.
HIBERNACLE: The place where dormitive people go to sleep — a hibernacle is a winter retreat. HUFFLE-BUFFS: The old, comfy and warm clothes you might put on of a Friday evening and not take off again until Monday morning.
LATIBULIZE: To hide away somewhere warm and snuggly for the winter. The related word latibulate means ‘to hide secretly in a corner’.
MISTLETOE: Given its smoochy reputation, this seasonal plant has rather unromantic beginnings. Its old name was ‘mistletan’, in which ‘tan’‘ta is a twig, and ‘mistle’ the name for the whole plant — but that itself probablypr comes from a Germanic wordwo ‘ mist’ meaning ‘ dung’, becausebe the plant is propagated in theth excrement of the pale, blackspottedsp mistle thrush.
MO MOG: To trudge laboriously over snow.sn Another word for reluctant moggingmo is trampoosing.
NIN NINGUID and NIVEOUS: Two poetic andan euphonious adjectives for snowysn weather.
OX OXTERFUL: As much as you can carry withinwi one arm, and a useful word for the effort to transport Christmasma presents from the house to the car.ca To oxtercog a person, meanwhile,wh is to carry them by supporting them under the armpits.
PA PANDICULATE: A highly useful verb forfo the act of yawning and performingpe a long stretch at the samesam time.
PIBLOKTO: A highly specific term for the condition affecting Inuit peoples in winter, characterised by episodes of wild excitement and irrational behaviour followed by a period of stupor. A handy term for the aftermath of the office Christmas party.
QU QUAFFTIDE: The time of day when youyo can finally down tools and have a glass of something nice. May comeco a bit earlier on winter days.
SC SCURRYFUNGE: The hasty tidying up of the house that immediately precedes the arrival of visitors.
SNIFTER: To snow slightly. A word that fills a linguistic gap to describe a sprinkling of snow that never quite settles.
SYLVAN: An animal or bird that lives in the woods. Silvanus was a Roman god of fields and forests, often identified with Pan (from whom we get the word ‘panic’, because legend held that Pan would hide in the woods and make strange noises to terrify passers-by).
THUNDERPLUMP: Downpours of fat raindrops, which are accompanied by a lot of ominous sky-rumbling.
YULE-HOLE: The hole in your belt that allows the greatest amount of girth, and that we all traditionally adjust to after a festive feast.
ZWODDER: A state of comfortable drowsiness and relaxation. This dialect word perfectly describes Saturday slothfulness by the fire. n
DENT’S Modern Tribes: The Secret Languages Of Britain by Susie Dent (John Murray, £14.99). To order a copy for £11.24 (offer valid to December 19, 2016) visit mailbookshop.co.uk or call 0844 571 0640. P&P is free on orders over £15.
* Which in plain olde English, according to Countdown’s SUSIE DENT, means ‘work’s over, so time for a drink and a cuddle beneath the icicles!’