spindrift

Etymology


Borrowed from ; further etymology uncertain. The  suggests it is a variant of, apparently due to the pronunciation of this word in southwestern Scotland, which is derived from ;  is a variant of. However, this is doubted by the  because spoondrift is attested later than spindrift and it seems unlikely that the Scots spelling would have superseded the English one, and because the early use of the Scots word in the form spenedrift by James Melville (1556–1614) is unlikely to have derived from spoondrift.

The word was popularized in English from the late 19th century by its use in the novels of the Scottish-born author William Black (1841–1898): see, for example, the 1878 quotation.

Noun

 * 1)  Sea spray (clouds of water droplets) blown from the tops of waves by the wind and whipped along the surface of the sea.
 * 2)  Clouds of sand, snow, etc., whipped along the ground by the wind.
 * 1)  Clouds of sand, snow, etc., whipped along the ground by the wind.
 * 1)  Clouds of sand, snow, etc., whipped along the ground by the wind.
 * 1)  Clouds of sand, snow, etc., whipped along the ground by the wind.
 * 1)  Clouds of sand, snow, etc., whipped along the ground by the wind.

Translations

 * Bulgarian: водни пръски
 * Chinese:
 * Mandarin:
 * Finnish:
 * French:
 * German:
 * Scottish Gaelic: cathadh-mara
 * Vietnamese: bụi nước
 * Welsh: llwch y môr