What The Hail???

[Marc Velasco]

I suspect, although working meteorologists might be sought for confirmation,
that the use of coin-size denominations of hail is an attempt at using
something 'universal' and very basic in an attempt to convey safety
warnings.  So perhaps dimes are more common than cherry tomatoes as lexical
markers.

Also, I think, especially for hail, when the central weather office will
often be at a remove from wherever the actual thunderstorms would be, that
often the meteorologists rely on first-hand accounts from storm-watchers and
from other locals who phone in and report what they see.  So the use of
coin-sizes might be coming from them, and just being parroted and relayed by
the meteorologist.


On Tue, Aug 12, 2008 at 9:28 AM, Charles Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: What The Hail???
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Within a given dialect group, I wonder, are tumors colloquially "sized" in
> the same figurative terminology as hailstones?  In Georgia, tumors can be
> pea-sized, marble-sized, golfball-sized, baseball-sized, softball-sized,
> grapefruit-sized (a subtle difference between those last two!), etc.  I
> doubt if hailstones measuring toward the larger end of that scale ever need
> to be discussed here (though I'm sure they do in Texas).
>
> --Charlie
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