Frostbiting: The Sport of Sailing on Cold Weather
One little word to kick-start creativity - #2
Frostbiting: noun
: the sport of sailing in cold weather
“frostbiting,” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/frostbiting.
Most of us know frostbite, which refers to freezing body tissue. But have you heard of frostbiting? It evolved from the verb “to injure by frost or frostbite” to an adjective meaning “done in cold weather” and by the 1960s, “frostbiting” referred to sailing in cold weather.
I’ve crossed Puget Sound on Ferries in below-zero temperatures but most of my Pacific Northwest boating time has been in milder weather. However, spring in Iceland can still be freezing, and our icy, sun-filled adventure in Húsavík and Skjálfandi Bay fits the bill.
There are lots of fancy ideas about the motivation for starting frostbiting,” says Knapp. “But I say it’s simple. The motivation was gin.
— Time, 15 Feb. 1960
We lacked gin for motivation, but these fresh cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate warmed our spirits at day’s end.
Every Monday, I’ll select one word from the weekly Merriam-Webster recap and explore it. If you’d like to follow along, learn a new word or two, and share your interpretation, restack my prompt with a link to yours or tag me. I’d love to see where your creativity takes you! If my weekly word doesn’t resonate see below for either the seven previous words of the day or the top five dictionary look-ups at the end of each post and you can choose your own adventure.
The words of the week - January 10: dictionary lookups
Blizzard
Homily
Palisade
Meatspace