Sunglade

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Peter Sachs calling from La Jolla, California, just near San Diego.

Oh yes, hi, welcome.

Thank you.

Hi, Peter, welcome to the program.

Thank you, thank you very much, Grant.

I’m glad to have the opportunity of speaking to you because for a long time I’ve wondered whether there was a word or phrase to describe a phenomenon that we often see down here on the West Coast when there’s an overcast sky and you’re looking from a hill up above and you see beams of light coming through breaks in the clouds to form beautiful, random silver pools of light on the gray ocean surface.

Many years ago, a professor of mine who was very knowledgeable in English mentioned that there was a word to describe this natural phenomenon, but I’ve forgotten that word and he’s since deceased, so I was wondering whether you might know of a word or a phrase to describe that scene.

Peter, can you describe what it looks like?

Okay. Well, you know, where we live, it’s quite hilly. And as you come down a hill on a very overcast, on an overcast sky, beams of sunlight will penetrate openings in the cloud cover and form a silver pool in many spots, depending on how many breaks there are in the clouds, on the ocean surface. Very bright pools of silver light. And it’s quite striking.

Well, you know, I saw something like that the other day a little bit further up the coast, and it almost looked like on Star Trek when they beamed somebody up.

Well, it looks a little bit like that, correct?

Well, what we mostly see are these beautiful bright silver pools where the beam hits the gray ocean surface on a day like that, and you see pools of silver light on the ocean surface with a beam of light coming down, of course, to it.

Well, Peter, you’ve described it really beautifully, but you’re looking for a single word for that.

A word or a phrase. If I was to describe this to you in a letter or a conversation, how would I describe it without going through the whole description?

Right.

So are you talking specifically about the beam on the water or the beam itself?

No, I’m talking about the pool of light that the beam causes on the water, like a silver pool of light.

Okay, because the first thing that I thought of isn’t quite right, but I want to share it with you anyway because it’s an interesting word, is albedo, A-L-B-E-D-O. And this is the proportion of light that is reflected by a surface. So you might say that the moon has a high albedo tonight, meaning it reflects a lot of light. Often it’s used to talk about the albedo of snow because snow is highly reflective. And if you’re a pilot or if you’re working in that environment, you might want to take into consideration what kind of lenses you need to wear.

So it probably comes from that whole family of words having to do with white, right?

Yeah, exactly right.

And an egg and that kind of thing.

That’s exactly right. It ultimately goes back to Latin for white.

Another one that’s also not quite right, but I wanted to share with you, because I think it might lead us in a good direction, is Moonglade, M-O-O-N-G-L-A-D-E. Obviously, this is about moonlight. It’s the reflection of moonlight on water, which, of course, we see often here, too.

Oh, yes.

So I looked to see if there’s an equivalent, like Sunglade, but I didn’t find that.

Martha, do you know Moonglade?

I do now.

Wow, that’s a gorgeous word. That’s so poetic.

Yeah, I like it.

It must have been Moonglade.

Well, this one you probably know. I think we’ve actually talked about this on the show before, lambency. And this is the glowing, gleaming, or flickering with a soft radiance. And, again, that’s not quite right because that makes it seem like a diffused light where you’re really talking about that striking glare off the water because everything else is gray or cloudy. This one spot, it’s as if angels have come down, right? And there may be multiple pools of light depending on the amount of breaks in the cloud cover above. So it’s really like a sunbeam coming through in different places and casting that bright light like a flashlight was coming down on the ocean.

Right.

It’s a silver light. And the individual who mentioned that there was such a word almost suggests there was a meteorological word for it. I have not been able to find that either.

Well, this is the one that I think has the best chance of being the one he was talking about. And this is coruscation, C-O-R-U-S-C-A-T-I-O-N. And this is a gleam or a flash of light.

C-O-R?

C-O-R-U-S-C-A-T-I-O-N, coruscation.

It could have been. It could have been. I can’t remember.

It’s not as beautiful as the other ones, though, is it?

No, you’d think maybe Sun Glade would be it or something like that.

I think Sunday should be it.

That’s great. I think I’m also going to maybe find out. We have the Scripps Institute of Oceanography here in La Jolla. And I have patients who work there. Maybe ask them if they know of somebody who knows a word for that.

Well, Peter, if you find out, let us know.

I will. I’ll get back to you. Of course I will.

Yes.

Beautiful.

Peter, one last thing before you go.

Yes.

Does everyone in La Jolla talk with an accent like that?

Not everybody, unless they came from South Africa.

Beautiful.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Thank you for sharing with us today, Peter.

Well, thanks very much. If I ever find out the word, or if you do, we’ll make contact.

That would be lekker.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

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