firnn.
A name given to snow above the glaciers which is partly consolidated by alternate thawing and freezing, but has not yet become glacier-ice. Also attributive and in other combinations.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > water > ice > body of ice > glacier > [noun] > snow not yet packed into ice
névé1842
firn1853
glacier-snow1883
the world > the earth > weather and the atmosphere > weather > precipitation or atmospheric moisture > snow > [noun] > a fall of snow > types of fallen snow
mountain snow1567
red snow1678
poudre1846
firn1853
powder snow1914
powder1931
boilerplate1937
snowpack1952
crud1961
tracking snow1971
1853 E. K. Kane U.S. Grinnell Exped. viii. 61 The ‘firn’, or consolidated snow of the Alpine glaciers.
1855 J. D. Forbes Tour Mt. Blanc 33 Magnificent is the prospect which these firns sometimes present.
1878 T. H. Huxley Physiography (ed. 2) 155 The imperfectly consolidated substance, partly snow and partly ice, is known in Switzerland as Névé or Firn.
1934 Geogr. Jrnl. 84 283 The firn-field, as we know it in the Alps.
1937 Discovery Feb. 35/2 The ‘firn stoss’ or ‘ice-quake’.
1958 Jrnl. Glaciol. 3 265 The firn line..is rather lower than the equilibrium line of the smallest glaciers.
Derivatives
firnifiˈcation n. the conversion of snow into firn.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > weather and the atmosphere > weather > precipitation or atmospheric moisture > snow > [noun] > a fall of snow > types of fallen snow > conversion into firn
firnification1923
1923 Ahlmann & Tveten in Geogr. Annaler V. 55 We imagine the process in the firnification of the snow, and its further glaciation to consist mainly in a sublimation, caused by the various vapour pressures on different forms and different sizes of crystals.
1937 Nature 30 Jan. 187/1 Firnification, or the changes of the snowflake after lying on the ground.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1896; most recently modified version published online March 2021).
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n.1853