Coastal fog - what do you call it?

[ QUOTE ]

It can be a real curse in Edinburgh. If you live near the shore you can spend a week in cold dark clammy stuff when half a mile up the road is in glorious sunshine


[/ QUOTE ]
Indeed. I am just back in town after visiting a site in Midlothian, about 10M inland and 200m altitude, it's a warm summer day there and rather chilly here near the sea at an altitude of about 30m.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Used to be called a roke (spelling?) in East Yorkshire

[/ QUOTE ]

This sounds like the most norse word to me as it is called (sjö)rök in Swedish and the Norwegian pronounciation should sound something like "royk". The meaning is essentially (sea)smoke.

Haar isn't something that I can connect to any Scandinavian/Norse word, at least right now...
 
I've always thought the word Haar to have a Dutch connection,(suprisingly many Scots words have this origin as there was much interchange between the nations). My grandfather (from Fife originally but resident in Edinburgh) always spoke of the cold east wind haar, associating it with both mist and a cold east wind. The Scots dictionary definition tends to confirm this

"The word is of Dutch origin, coming either from Middle Dutch hare, a biting wind, or Frisian harig, damp"
 
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
We used to call that mixture of mist and drizzle mizzle

[/ QUOTE ]
Wasn't that word invented by David Ike?

[/ QUOTE ]

Possibly, but must have been in one of his a previous lives, again probably of Dutch origin

miz·zle 1 (mzl)
intr.v. miz·zled, miz·zling, miz·zles
To rain in fine, mistlike droplets; drizzle.
n.
A mistlike rain; a drizzle.
[Middle English misellen; probably akin to Dutch dialectal mieselen
 
[ QUOTE ]
'Haar' is derivative in the Northumberland and Fife dialects from Norse/Dansk roots

[/ QUOTE ]

According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary the word is "perhaps from Old Norse harr meaning hairy or hoary".
 
The Concise Oxford gives it as a seafog on the east coast of England or Scotland (I've heard it in Norfolk), and suggest that it comes from the old Norse word for "hoar". It gives hoar as having Germanic roots and meaning grey.
 
Interestingly even in my lifetime the meaning of this word has altered. In NE Scotland as a youth it was used to refer more to the cold wind than the mist associated with it. In these days, prior to BBC english, words meant different things in different areas. Now, I agree, it is associated more with a sea fog than anything else.
 
Definitely Haar in East Scotland. However, I remember being on holiday on the coast near Dorchester when the local radio referred to it as being 'a bit humid' - classic sea fog, 10 degrees colder than just inland!
 
[ QUOTE ]
Ken, haar is in use here, as well as fret.

[/ QUOTE ]

haar is the result of a specific wind direction, whereas fret isn't, then there's smirn - where you get wet by walking in it.
 
"Haar" is also a term used in the Fens for a thankfully infrequent condition when fine, dry soil is lifted into the air in high pressure hot conditions. I have lived in the Fens for nearly 30 years and have only seen it once or twice, thankfully - it is very unpleasant. But I gather it used to be more common.
 
A bad Haar day..maybe /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

I've heard Haar and Fret used regularly in the north east. I knew they were different, but didn't know why. Roke is a new one on me though, which goes to show you never stop learning. Roker Park (foggy place once inhabited by footballers). Oh alright, I made that one up. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Tim
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top