Eskimo words for snow - I was surprised, the old story about how the Inuit have many more words for snow than we do looks like it's just an urban legend. They do have a few more words for snow than in English, but only about 5 extra words.

A few neat extra words though are:

(6) Fallen snow on the ground
aniu [NS] 'snow on ground'

(7) Soft, deep fallen snow on the ground
muruaneq 'soft deep snow'

(9) Fresh fallen snow on the ground
nutaryuk 'fresh snow' [HBC]

(10) Fallen snow floating on water
qanisqineq 'snow floating on water'


And in a really neato turn of events, it looks like Norwegian might have way more words for snow than the Inuit do! What a huge list on this page. Go Norse!