# Eskimo words for snow

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimo-words-for-snow/49>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [May 9, 1999, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimo-words-for-snow/49 "1999-05-09T18:21:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [May 9, 1999, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimo-words-for-snow/49/1 "1999-05-09T18:21:00Z")

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[http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1\_297.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_297.html)

I first read this column as a callow youth… now I wonder how the Teeming Millions let Cecil get away with this answer.

When asked for the nine Eskimo words for “snow,” Cecil stated, “I have a lot more than nine words for snow, and I do not even need to resort to Eskimo. I have a powerful descriptive vocabulary.”

Yet, in his treatise, The Master yields only three Eskimo words and one English - the word “snow.” Sure, Cecil begged license to include words for “ice,” but that was not the question.

I suspect the real answer is, “No, there are only three - but you can make a whole bunch up by adding adjectives to a root word.” Instead, a younger incarnation of our Beloved gave us a load of anaq - which, in my original text, did not translate as "doodoo.