A Newfoundland Treasury of Terms for Ice and Snow: A Lexicon and Photographic Essay

Ballicattered, Blast Hole Pond River, Newfoundland, Winter 2012–13

Ballicattered means covered with a layer of ice formed by the action of spray or waves along the shoreline of the sea, ponds, or rivers.¹

Clinkerbells, Blast Hole Pond River, Newfoundland, Winter 2012–13

Clinkerbells are icicles.

Brickle Ice, Blast Hole Pond River, Newfoundland, Winter 2012–13

Brickle ice is ice that is brittle and easily broken.

Mother Carey is plucking her chickens, Blast Hole Pond River, Newfoundland, Winter 2012–13

"Mother Carey is plucking her chickens" is an expression for snow falling in large, fluffy clumps. Mother Carey's chickens is a name for storm petrels—small birds that live out at sea. When observed near and, they warn of an impending storm. Mother Carey is said to be derived from the Latin mater cara, meaning "mother dear," apparently a reference to the Virgin Mary.

Pancake Ice, Conception Bay, Newfoundland, March 2014

Thin sheets of ice that do not impede navigation are called pancake ice.

Scattering Ice, Conception Bay, Newfoundland, March 2014

Scattering ice is an ice field that is breaking into fragments and dispersing.

Slack Ice, Conception Bay, Newfoundland, March 2014

An ice field in loose pieces is described as slack ice.

Sish, Conception Bay, Newfoundland, March 2014

Fine, granulated ice floating on the surface of the sea is sish.

The word treasury usually describes a collection of highly valued poems; it is used in the title A Newfoundland Treasury of Terms for Ice and Snow to describe a collection of highly valued poetic terms. There is a wide local vocabulary in Newfoundland and Labrador to distinguish specific phenomena in the continuous modulations of winter weather. These photographs represent just eight of over eighty local terms I found that name different conditions of ice (especially sea ice), snow, and winter weather, which I have documented in still photographs, poetry, and video.² Some additional terms in my treasury include dwy, living screecher of a storm, crudly snow, scuddy weather, buckly ice, lolly, slatchy water, pummy, slottery snow, devil's blanket, drift-ice, clumper, knot of ice, copy pans, embayed ice, raftering ice, and slob.

There are words from many linguistic groups in the local vocabulary. Several of the terms are from seventeenth-century English, brought to Newfoundland with the settlers, such as clinkerbell (also conkerbill and conkerbell), an old Wessex term for icicle.³ Most of the European settlers in Newfoundland originated in southwestern England and southeastern Ireland.⁴ Some of the other linguistic groups who settled here, or with whom Newfoundlanders have been in contact, include the Indigenous Inuit, Innu, and Mi'kmaq, as well as other seafaring people such as the Scots, Welsh, Norman and Breton French, Portuguese, Basque, and Spanish. Many terms survived in Newfoundland after falling out of use in their original countries, while others arose from particular occupational activities in this climate.

The terms in this treasury are precise, practical, evocative, sonic, and lyrical. The local dialect is important because knowing these words helps us actually see different phenomena, instead of winter being just a cold, white blur.⁵ As noted by the British author and essayist Robert Macfarlane, "A basic literacy of landscape is falling away up and down the ages. … And what is lost along with this literacy is something precious: … the power that certain terms possess to enchant our relations with nature and place."⁶ These terms are also important to me because some of them would have been in the mouths of my Newfoundland ancestors.

This vocabulary is now a fragile, intangible artifact. The loss of local linguistic complexity is a result of major changes in Newfoundland and Labrador, particularly the...