What is winter? (UNCLASSIFIED)

Eoin C. Bairéad ebairead at GMAIL.COM
Wed Feb 24 17:32:21 UTC 2010


Hi everyone

Taking the points one at a time.

Tom wasn't being rude, he was being homely. That's OK. I've seen rude, and
over here it often involves many possible (and some not-so-possible)
cognates of a Middle English verb meaning "to move restlessly, to fidget" .

Secondly, Eoin is the earlier Irish form of John, predating the more common
Seán by several centuries. It's sort of pronounced like Owen.

Thirdly, every seems to agree - seasons depend primarily on the weather.
When there's no real weather (like in Ireland) then length of day is as
important as temperature. If there are extremely high mountains to the left,
and a large mass of frozen Greenland to the right, and several thousand
miles of continent in the middle, then Spring is whatever the locals say it
is. And if they say "September to March", then so be it.

OK?


Eoin

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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