Snow In Your Wheel Wells

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello.

Hi, who’s this?

This is Elizabeth from Indianapolis.

Well, hello, Elizabeth. What’s happening?

Well, not much, but I have a question about a word.

Oh, let’s hear it.

Well, when I moved to upstate New York from California in 1994, I experienced a lot of snow. And I lived in a little village that was about five miles from where I worked and would have to drive down this road. And I noticed that my car wheel wells would fill up with a lot of stuff, a lot of slush, and we lived near a dairy farm, and so there was a lot of manure in there too. And I wondered if there was a word for this stuff because I’d have to, when I arrived where I was going, I’d have to try and push it out of the way, out of my wheel well. And in all these years since then, I’ve never encountered a word for that stuff, and I think there should be one.

So you never heard anybody else there in snowy upstate New York talking about it?

Not really. It was just a part of life, so there was never any discussion about it. And at the time, our daughter was about three years old, and she came up with a word for it.

What is it?

Well, the word that she came up with was braxis.

Braxis.

Yeah, and I don’t know where she pulled this word out of, but that was the word that came out of her mouth. And so ever since then, that’s what we call it.

So could you use it in a sentence, Mommy, I hear the Braxis rattling around in the back, or what?

No.

Mommy, look, there’s a lot of Braxis. You have to get rid of it so we can drive the car.

This is the snow and ice that collects in the wheel well, right?

Yes.

You know, Elizabeth, it’s funny that you should ask that because we were just having a discussion about that on our discussion forum at waywordradio.org. Because a lot of people were talking about all the different words that they had for it.

Really?

Yes. I hadn’t seen Braxis, but I remember somebody was talking about them being called Chunkers, and there was a snard contingent as well.

Yeah, apparently this was discussed on public radio before, and S-N-A-R-D was a word that people really liked. In Paul Dixon’s Family Words book, he has a bunch more words for this, including grice, G-R-I-C-E, which is a combination of grime and ice. He also has snow lactites, carsicles I really like.

Carsicles, that’s kind of nice.

Snert, you know, snow plus dirt, slud, S-L-U-D, knobicles, which I don’t think will ever apply, but it’s fun to say.

Knobicles.

And snotice, or snotice, I’m not sure how to say that one. Oh, and of course, snow boogers.

How do you like snow boogers?

Well, I think a child would like that.

Yeah, your daughter would probably like that.

What are you saying about me?

I really like that too.

Yeah, that’s Paul Dixon’s book, book of words that families have invented, right?

Right.

Or kind of shared around.

So it sounds like one of those things that you can call just about anything.

Yeah, but you’d think that there would be really a word for it because it’s the stuff that is just around all winter long. There’s plenty of stuff that doesn’t have one simple single word names. We use more than one word to describe it, and that seems to be sufficient.

I guess this is one of those cases where just calling it snow and ice and dirt or just snow and dirt is enough.

Well, it’s something that really looms in your life, though, if you’re living in a cold place and are having to chop that stuff off the back of the car.

Well, I’m leaning towards snow boogers or snark.

Snark probably, isn’t it?

Snark sounds pretty good. I always like to get it off before I pull it into my garage so it doesn’t melt all over the inside.

Oh, yeah, and you need that horrible grime, that black kind of gritty, sooty puddle in the floor, right?

Yeah.

Well, Elizabeth, we gave you some more options, and we’re spreading your word to the world, or your daughter’s word.

Well, I appreciate that, and I know she will, too, although she’ll probably be a little embarrassed.

That’s all right. What is her name?

Her name is Laurel.

Well, Laurel, good job. We’re going to tell everyone that you’re the one that did it.

Okay, thank you so much.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

You know, I don’t drive here in New York City. I take the subway or I walk everywhere. Maybe I’ll take a cab now and again. So this is not something I encounter regularly. But, you know, the winter of 2008, 2009 has been particularly tough in parts of the country that aren’t used to receiving that kind of snow. So I can see why there’d be new life to this discussion about what to call that.

Yeah. Well, if you have a word for it, give us a call. The number is 1-877-929-9673.

Or you can email us. The address is words@waywordradio.org.