Distinctly Montana Magazine

D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A • W I N T E R 2 0 1 6 84 BLIZZARD is the word we North Americans reserve for our con- tinent's winter storms: those shrieking tempests of horizontal snow that blind motorists, strand livestock and wildlife, and leave country dwellers snowbound for days. Though most American English speakers can describe a blizzard, the word itself is elusive, leaving confusing etymological tracks. An early citation of blizzard appears in the 1834 autobiog- raphy of Col. David "Davy" Crockett, Tennessee frontiersman. Crockett writes, "A gentleman at dinner asked me for a toast; and supposing he meant to have some fun at my expense, I concluded to go ahead, and give him and his likes a blizzard." So Davy Crockett knew the word, but to him, the meaning of blizzard was "a volley of abusive words." Other early senses of the word include "a sharp blow or knock" and "a hail of gunfire or arrows." Snow was never implied in any of its several early incarnations. But in the 1850s as immigrants and explorers pushed westward, they encountered savage Midwestern winter storms which, by at least 1859, were being called blizzards. Evidence of this comes Most species of Atlantic and Pacific SALMON spend their adult lives in the sea, but migrate to fresh water to spawn and die. is remarkable migratory behavior makes salmon anad- romous fish. Anadromous, a word appearing in print in 1753, consists of the Greek prefix ana, "up" and dromos, "running." Etymologically, salmon "run up" the river to complete their life cycle. Swimming upstream, migrating salmon launch themselves airborne to surmount falls and cataracts. Humans in the northern hemisphere, where salmon thrive, have observed these high-profile acrobats for millennia, and, in some languages, the creature's migratory behavior is emblemized in a name. Salmon most likely comes from the Latin verb salire, "to leap." Several European languages share similar words for the fish. In Provençal, it's salmo; in Spanish salmon; in Portuguese salmão, and Italian has salmone and sermone. Salmon species of tzhe Pacific Northwest are named chinook (from the Columbia River Chinook natives who relied on them for food); sockeye (from a Salish word sukkai, meaning 'fish'), and dog (from the prominent canines of spawning males). Martha Johnson, Broker | Owner (406) 580.5891 cell | (406) 995.6333 office martha@bigskyrealestate.com BLIZZARD SALMON

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