I am just about as crazy (anal retentive) as they come. Just in case you were not aware of that fact, I an CDO. In case you do not know what that means, it means I am so OCD that I have to put it in alphabetical order. I even have a card from Beinno and iJm to prove it. I am a list maker. Many of you might have had the high honor of seeing one of my lists, and having the tutorial about what all the colors that I use to declare a task completed mean. There is not anything subtle about my list making. But I digress. Every evening when I return home from work, I have a routine. I check the front electric meter, the water meter, feed the chickens, make sure they have water, collect eggs, and sometimes (depending on how I feel) scoop chicken shit out of the coop. This particular ceremony began when the cattle destroyed a water line going to the back pasture, and before I knew it, we had lost thousands-and-thousands of gallons of water (metered water). So, it started as just checking the water meter to see if there could be a leak somewhere, but now it is an obsession. But I digress. The whole point of this conversation is to say that, as I was going about my compulsions, Barney decided to come and acknowledge my existence. Say hi to Barney, y'all.Niveous -- Adjective. of or relating to snow. resembling snow (as in whiteness). snowy. "Wind-deposited drifts reshape the landscape. Where there was once a gently slope, there is now a steep niveous wall." Paul G Wiegman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 8, 1994
Did You Know? Niveous is a rarely used word, but the vocabulary virtuosos of the past have found occasion to put it to good use. Take James Hurdis, for example, who in 1800 wrote of "cottage and steeple in the niveous stole of Winter trimly dressed." Today, you are most likely to come across niveous in spelling bees or word games. If, however, you have an inkling to use it, make sure your audience gets the drift (get it?) that the word ultimately traces to the Latin nix, meaning "snow."
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