snow: [OE] Snow is an ancient word, with relatives throughout the Indo-European languages. Its ultimate ancestor was Indo- European *snigwh- or *snoigwho-. This also produced Latin nix (source of French neige, Italian neve, and Spanish nieve), obsolete Welsh nyf, Russian sneg, Czech snóh, Latvian sniegs, etc. Its prehistoric Germanic descendant was *snaiwaz, which has evolved into German schnee, Dutch sneeuw, Swedish snö, Danish sne, and English snow.
snow (n.)
Old English snaw "snow, that which falls as snow; a fall of snow; a snowstorm," from Proto-Germanic *snaiwaz (cognates: Old Saxon and Old High German sneo, Old Frisian and Middle Low German sne, Middle Dutch snee, Dutch sneeuw, German Schnee, Old Norse snjor, Gothic snaiws "snow"), from PIE root *sniegwh- "snow; to snow" (cognates: Greek nipha, Latin nix (genitive nivis), Old Irish snechta, Irish sneachd, Welsh nyf, Lithuanian sniegas, Old Prussian snaygis, Old Church Slavonic snegu, Russian snieg', Slovak sneh "snow"). The cognate in Sanskrit, snihyati, came to mean "he gets wet." As slang for "cocaine" it is attested from 1914.
snow (v.)
c. 1300, from the noun, replacing Old English sniwan, which would have yielded modern snew (which existed as a parallel form until 17c. and, in Yorkshire, even later), from the root of snow (n.). The Old English verb is cognate with Middle Dutch sneuuwen, Dutch sneeuwen, Old Norse snjova, Swedish snöga.
Also þikke as snow þat snew,
Or al so hail þat stormes blew.
[Robert Mannyng of Brunne, transl. Wace's "Chronicle," c. 1330]
The figurative sense of "overwhelm; surround, cover, and imprison" (as deep snows can do to livestock) is 1880, American English, in phrase to snow (someone) under. Snow job "strong, persistent persuasion in a dubious cause" is World War II armed forces slang, probably from the same metaphoric image.
实用例句
1. The first snow came a month earlier than usual.
第一场雪比往年提早了一个月。
来自柯林斯例句
2. I'd been a fool letting him snow me with his big ideas.
我真蠢，居然被他的胡乱吹嘘给蒙蔽了。
来自柯林斯例句
3. The snow was light and noiseless as it floated down.
雪花轻盈飘落，无声无息。
来自柯林斯例句
4. A blizzard was blasting great drifts of snow across the lake.
暴风雪夹着大团的积雪吹过湖面。
来自柯林斯例句
5. He braced his shoulders as the snow slashed across his face.
