"That's a great deal to make one word mean," Alice said in a thoughtful tone. "When I make a word do a lot of work like that," said Humpty Dumpty, "I always pay it extra."

Tuesday, 2 June 2009

Harr


 
This mist is known in the Outer Hebrides as a harr or harr mist. Harr is defined (when you can eventually trace a definition) as cold sea-mist - generally refering to the winter sea-mists in the North Sea. In fact they can be summer mists and come in all around the North British coastline.


The Urban Dictionary said it was Northumbrian/Tyneside dialect but actually it is used in many parts of N England and Scotland. Despite the lack of on-line definitions it is still in common usage. Variants inclkude Harl, Harn, Hoar, Hoare. It is of Saxon and Norse origin.
 

1 comment:

  1. Interesting. In the summer on the coast of CA, most days around 4pm you could see the fog sitting out there on the water just waiting, waiting, waiting to come in!

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