quinzhees

the nascence of this blog was essentially to share new and interesting vocabulary.  its evolved somewhat, but nothing thrills me more than having my synapses encounter a word or phrase i've never heard of.

this week it is the word "quinzhee".  instead of just googling it, i asked the friend who first mentioned it, "what is a quinzhee?"  and she wrote back that it is a Canadian snow fort, constructed from a mound of loose snow that is shaped and then hollowed out from the inside. the word quinzhee is Athabaskan in etymology and entered english language around 1984.

it is not to be confused with...

snow cave:  built by digging into the snow

igloo:  built from blocks of hard snow

lumitalo:  a fancy, more elaborate quinzhee

so there you have it.  next time you are out playing in the icy precipitation you have terminology at your frozen fingertips!