It seldom profits a man (especially a man) to listen to Radio 4 these days, but this morning I caught the new Book of the Week, Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez. A natural, social and cultural history of the Arctic region, this seems to be quite interesting, and is, I discover, something of a classic in its field, having been around since 1986 (the author died last year). But my point, if I have one, is this: listening to it, I discovered a new word – which is always a pleasure. The word is 'subnivean', which means under the snow: the 'subnivean zone' is the world between the snow surface and the terrain below, in which many creatures live at least some of their lives, relatively insulated and relatively safe from predators. 'Subnivean' – I like it...
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I like it, too, yet etymology aside it looks as if it should be used to refer to a man who affects the debonair manner of David Niven but can't quite carry it off.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant idea – thanks George!
ReplyDeleteDidn’t Nivea boycott GBNews?
ReplyDeleteI swear, Nige, coincidence must be combed into my DNA. Immediately after reading this blog post I began reading (for the first time) Alan Moorehead's A Late Education Do you know the book? It opens in the Bar Basque, St Jean de Luz. On page 2:
ReplyDelete"One ate jambon de Bayonne (which was said to have lain all winter, salted and raw, maturing under the snow of the Pyrenees)..."
and there follows a catalogue -- positively Homeric -- of foodstuffs, to make the senses whirl. But I had to read it a second time to perceive it once, for my mind was stuck, stalled, on that subnivean ham curing . . .
Subnivean ham – oh yes! Thanks Baceseras.
ReplyDelete