User:Stelio/snoil

English

Etymology

Blend of snow +‎ soil. A neologism coined by George Monbiot on 2 March 2018.

Noun

snoil (uncountable)

1. (UK) Snow onto which topsoil has been blown by strong winds.
   • 3 March 2018, Patrick Laurie, Snoil, Working for grouse:

     There has been a muttering online about “snoil”. The word was coined on social media to describe the erosion of topsoil in dry weather and high winds, particularly when the “blow-off” becomes obvious in drifts of snow.

   • 14 March 2018 (first broadcast 7 March 2018 on Farming Today), Radio 4 in Four, Snoil: guess what this new word means, BBC:

     So when you start sort of putting all that sort of mix together, you end getting what's being called by some people as snoil or actually, as they say in Canada, they say snirt.

   • 9 March 2018, Paul Simons, Weather Eye, Snow and soil mix highlights threat to farmland, The Times:

     Despite the snowy weather, the bitterly cold winds from the east were dry and lifted topsoil off many bare fields, then smothered it over snow-covered areas. The Twitter hashtag dubbed it “snoil”, short for snow and soil. In Canada it is more common and is called “snirt”, short for snow and dirt.

Synonyms

• snirt

Anagrams

• Solin, linos, lions, loins, losin', noils