snowstorm

Etymology

It is a compound from English snow + storm.^[2][3][4] The OED compares German Schneesturm and Swedish snöstorm,^[2] and Dictionary.com marks it as an Americanism.^[4] Snow is from Old English snāw,^[3] and storm is from Old English storm (“tempest”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A storm with a heavy fall of snow: 1771, in A. G. Winslow's diary.^[2][3][5] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the word earlier, to 1755,^[6][7] and Dictionary.com to 1765–75.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The word was later applied to things that look like falling snow.^[6] From 1926 it named a glass dome or globe holding a small scene and loose particles that swirl like snow when it is shaken,^[2][5] and since 1948 the white speckling on a television or radar screen.^[2][5] In American drug slang of the early 20th century a snowstorm was a session of taking cocaine or morphine (1911).^[8]

Timeline

• 1771 – a storm with heavy snowfall.^[2][3] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates this sense to 1755.^[6]
• 1911 – US drug slang, the taking of cocaine or morphine.^[8]
• 1926 – a snow globe.^[2]
• 1948 – figurative, snow-like interference on a television or radar screen.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A storm with a heavy fall of snow: A snowstorm closed the mountain pass for three days.^{[9][6][10][2]}
2. Something that looks like falling snow, such as a dense flight of white birds.^[6]
3. A snow globe.^[2][1]
4. A snow-like pattern of interference on a television or radar screen.^[2]

Related words

• snow
• storm
• snowfall

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin