words for water/sea conditions

[Longdog]

I've been asking around if there are specific words for water/sea conditions such as when it's a mirror calm, when there are white caps building, a big long gentle swell, short rough swell, but getting no joy.

 

I'm sure there must be as there's so many words for snow even though allegedly we hardly get any

 

So any wirds for me?

 

Kev

[MuckleJoannie]

Black calm

 

A grain o motion

 

A bra grain o motion

 

Kegly

[Guest Anonymous]

Agree with MuckleJoannie on:

Black Calm (Although it's seldom seen in Shetland and

A Grain o motion. That's just a gentle swell.

 

Thoughts of my own, likely spelled wrongly:

'A bummel o sh*te' - When it's not quite comfortable to be out in a boat. (Just imagine the Sumburgh Roost in a small boat)

'Liftin Swall' - The long heavy Atlantic swell, That will have different names in all areas of Shetland)

'Tide lump' - You really don't want to meet one of those in a kayak.

 

And one that I've only heard once before, and have no idea what it refers to: "A driven swall" (I think it may refer to a heavy swell which is being forced by a storm front, but that's just a guess)

 

Oh, and apologies to Muckle Joannie. I forgot to mention his "Kegly".

That's a difficult word to describe, in boating terms, but if you have a sudden urge to pee over the side of the boat, it's better not to do it on a Kegly sea. You might kegle ower da side, or at the very least lose control of the equipment in hand.

[Skyumpi]

"Aff-rug" the short, choppy, confused motion that sets up when waves are reflected back off the land into the face of the incoming waves, often resulting in Auld Rasmie's "bummel o sh*te"

[Ghostrider]

"Kegly" might be best compared to driving a Land Rover across country with the driver's seat mounted on soft springs.

[Guest Anonymous]

splendeed, owerweel, no sae gritt, braaly poor (sphinkter trouble), an bide ashore, depending on whether one prefers to go to sea apon a barrel stave or not

[GT]

Maalie calm

 

Grund swall

 

and Clock calm

[Longdog]

Cheers for all those responses, knew they'd be out there

 

aff-rugg or a bummel o sh** is what I guess I'd call clapotis and a driven swall, wind waves.

 

Be interested to hear more offerings

[upmakk]

Agree with MuckleJoannie on:

 

And one that I've only heard once before, and have no idea what it refers to: "A driven swall" (I think it may refer to a heavy swell which is being forced by a storm front, but that's just a guess)

 

One I've heard only rarely - 'cross swall', i.e. two lots of waves travelling in different directions and meeting at an angle to each other. Dangerous if you're trying to launch a small boat from a beach, though that perhaps isn't so often done nowadays.

[tarhellja]

Flat as a fluke, cuggly, a stoor o'wind, a flyin gale, a night o' pure distress. Da P&O guys and gals had dir ain wird for any who succumbed to da elements and had a "techinicolour yawn." Dey were referred to as da "no-weelers." eg; "Been any no-weelers da night?"

[Kavi Ugl]

Jakob Jakobsen's dictionaries are full of sea terms, infact while browsing the copies upstairs in the library I was amazed by how many old words there were for the different states of sea.

 

[stilldellin]

Whin da sea is aa in a froad during an efter a gale whit you see gadderin in da geos is lukki minnie's butter. :-

http://i1207.photobucket.com/albums/bb479/beenister/lukkiminniesbutter.jpg

[shetlandpeat]

Jakob Jakobsen's dictionaries are full of sea terms, infact while browsing the copies upstairs in the library I was amazed by how many old words there were for the different states of sea.

 

 

I was suprised at the price asked for on Alibris for both books, well over £1300.