Language Log: Snow-word progress: glacial at best
Geoff Pullum did his best to sound optimistic a few weeks ago 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 and Nathan Bierma at the Chicago Tribune, 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."
