Meaning: snow

Illustrative Context

There was snow on the ground.

Disambiguation

• The noun snow, not the verb to snow.

Target Sense

• The most generic noun for snow, in the prototypical sense of precipitation in frozen form, as snowflakes (not hail), directly visible and perceptible (not frost).
• This must be explicitly differentiated from the broad sense of precipitation of any form, which is too general, and a hypernym to the narrower target sense for IE-CoR. That is:
  • Do not enter a more abstract term for precipitation. Only in the rare case of a language whose most basic lexeme does not distinguish between (frozen) snow and (liquid) rain, then this may be the target lexeme, since this makes it also the default term used for the target sense and illustrative context here.
  • Avoid terms specific to liquid (or even just partly frozen) forms of precipitation: rain, sleet.
  • Avoid terms specific to hail, as precipitation in frozen form but in the form of compact and heavy ice-balls, in contrast to the target sense of snow as light ‘flakes’.
  • Avoid terms specific to frost, i.e. frozen dew from condensation, in contrast to the target sense of perceptibly falling (flakes of) snow.
• The target sense here is of ‘rain’ as in turn a hypernym that covers a range of finer distinctions, for snow of different types, intensity or duration. Avoid any such narrower terms, e.g. English blizzard, snowstorm, sleet.
• Enter the most generic term: avoid terms specific to snow either while still falling, or while already on the ground.
• The target sense is the literal one, for the weather phenomenon. Avoid any lexemes that are predominantly extensions, e.g. to concepts of whiteness, purity, etc..
• Avoid any technical, meteorological terms, including for different types of snow (e.g. for ski-ing, such as French poudreuse).
• See also, and contrast with, the definition of the separate IE-CoR meaning rain.