It’s Raining, It’s Mizzling…
Words from today and yesterday, inspired by our amazing weather.
Rain, Rain, Go Away…
Actually it stopped raining yesterday, but staring out of the window started me thinking about the weather again. I love the changing climates where I live now. I spent years living in Perth, Western Australia, where it was always hot, just sometimes hot and humid and sometimes hot and dry. Here, in glorious little Tasmania, we get all four seasons clearly delineated and it’s a joy to experience.
Today I’m interested in weather words. Misty, rainy, cloudy, snowy, windy, sunny. Sleet, drizzle, hail, frost. But have you heard of maumy? Or mizzle?
Maumy, according to the OED means ‘insipid’ weather, mild and humid. Not the type of word an Australian would probably use to describe a humid summer day, nor would a Singaporean, I suspect. New Orleans, Houston and Orlando probably don’t have too many maumy days, either. But our English cousins might have a legitimate use for it. I can easily picture a maumy English afternoon.
Mizzle means drizzle — I love this word! And fully intend to use it at the next opportunity. It first appeared in writing in 1490 and was still being used in 1990 — perhaps some of you use it, but it was completely new to me.
