Language Log: Snow-word progress: glacial at best [1]

Geoff Pullum did his best to sound optimistic a few weeks ago [2] when a reader sent in a reasonably well-informed treatment of the "Eskimo snow words" myth from the Holland Herald, the in-flight magazine of KLM Airlines. This respite from the usual drumbeat of media misinformation was notable enough to catch the attention of Michael Quinion at World Wide Words [3] and Nathan Bierma at the Chicago Tribune [4], who both shared Geoff's sanguine sentiment that there was "progress at last" on the snow-word front. But the headline to Bierma's column is probably a more accurate assessment: "Hell will freeze over before Eskimo 'snow' myth melts."