A skiff of....
The other day I used the term "a skiff of snow" in a quick post about a thin layer light fluffy snow that was covering everything outside. Predictably, I had one response asking me about my use of the word "skiff" to describe snow.
It's a phrase many people around here seem to use, and it has kind of a personal meaning for me.
My dad was a journalism major in college. So being trained in proper English, he had (and still has) an annoying tendency to correct bad grammar or word usage. Growing up, Jason and I never got away with ending a sentence with a preposition or using slovenly terms like "yous" or "hadn't better." In retrospect it was probably a good thing.
He tended to correct my mother quite often too, even though she went to teacher's college and was no slouch on language. One time when they were still dating, before we were around, on an early winter day, my mother said "there's just a skiff of snow on the ground." Dad went into correction mode and reminded her that the word "skiff" means a small boat. Mom just rolled her eyes and ignored him.
Later that day they visited his mothers house. His mother came to the door and said "there's just a skiff of snow on the ground today." She was a formidable, strong-willed, opinionated woman who you didn't argue with, and so ever since then, skiff of snow has been considered officially correct in our family.
So what do you think? Is skiff a proper term to describe a layer of snow?
It's a phrase many people around here seem to use, and it has kind of a personal meaning for me.
My dad was a journalism major in college. So being trained in proper English, he had (and still has) an annoying tendency to correct bad grammar or word usage. Growing up, Jason and I never got away with ending a sentence with a preposition or using slovenly terms like "yous" or "hadn't better." In retrospect it was probably a good thing.
He tended to correct my mother quite often too, even though she went to teacher's college and was no slouch on language. One time when they were still dating, before we were around, on an early winter day, my mother said "there's just a skiff of snow on the ground." Dad went into correction mode and reminded her that the word "skiff" means a small boat. Mom just rolled her eyes and ignored him.
Later that day they visited his mothers house. His mother came to the door and said "there's just a skiff of snow on the ground today." She was a formidable, strong-willed, opinionated woman who you didn't argue with, and so ever since then, skiff of snow has been considered officially correct in our family.
So what do you think? Is skiff a proper term to describe a layer of snow?