![]() The third section notes attempts by more-recent etymologists to identify the roots of the word (in French, German, Anglo-Saxon, or elsewhere) and to pinpoint where the snowstorm meaning of blizzard originated. ![]() The second section reviews analyses of blizzard by British writers between 18, with a particular focus on its arguable connection to Midlands dialect words such as blizzer, blizzom, and blizzy. The first section looks at nineteenth-century American discussions of the various slang meanings of blizzard-which include “a stunning blow,” “an unanswerable question or argument,” and “a violent and destructive snow-storm”-and their possible origin. My original response to this question is so long that I was asked to convert it into a blog post. What else do we not know about its history?. Today blizzard is an established part of the vocabulary of English. In 1870, in Iowa, a violent snowstorm was called a blizzard. When the suffix -ard was added to it, the new word began to denote all kinds of things having an immediate effect on its victim, from “a gunshot” to “an intoxicating drink.” In British rural speech, there existed a sound imitative complex blizz expressing the idea of great quickness. OED says it probably is "more or less onomatopœic," and adds "there is nothing to indicate a French origin." strong, sustained snowstorm," 1859, origin obscure (perhaps somehow connected with blaze (n.1)) it came into general use in the U.S. ![]() ![]() Can anyone offer a reliable story behind this term or just confirm its 'obscure' origin? Some well-known sources hint at its onomatopoeic sound as its possible origin. Despite its popularity the etymology of the term is quite unclear. Blizzard is probably the most used word to indicate a violent snowstorm. ![]()
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