snow

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   Soft white flakes of frozen water that fall from the sky in cold weather.

   The children played in the fresh snow all afternoon.

2. 2
   verb

   (of snow) To fall from the sky.

   It snowed heavily all through the night.

3. 3
   noun

   A layer of snowflakes covering the ground.

   I woke up to a thick blanket of snow over the city.

The noun is derived from Middle English snaw, snou, snow (“snow; accumulation of snow; snowfall; snowstorm; whiteness”), from Old English snāw (“snow”), from Proto-West Germanic *snaiw (“snow”), from Proto-Germanic *snaiwaz (“snow”), from Proto-Indo-European *snóygʷʰos (“snow”), from *sneygʷʰ- (“to snow”). The verb is derived from Middle English snouen (“to snow; (figurative) to shower”), from snou, snow (noun) (see above) + -en (suffix forming the infinitive of verbs). Displaced Old English snīwan, whence English snew (obsolete). Verb etymology 1, verb sense 2.3.2 (“to convince or hoodwink (s…

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