According to the English writer Robert Macfarlane, hundreds of words about the air, plants, land and its landscapes live forgotten. The new dictionaries eliminate terms about nature to replace them with technological terms, an act that separates us even further from the environment. For this simple reason, Macfarlane rescues inspiring words about nature so that we can shape reality, to reconnect.
Describing the essence of nature is key to being able to relate to it. It is through language that we structure reality, we name things. But it is not just about providing names or transferring ideas, words about nature function as a philosophy that helps us understand what builds the whole.
In this sense, we can translate the natural world as we best appreciate it. Create a nature dictionary that describes the world to us, that helps us imagine what we once saw, that helps us reconnect.
The virtual language that distances us from nature
Why have we stopped talking about nature? Technology is a good explanation, it is not necessarily the culprit, but it is the cause of our break with the environment. We live tied to a screen, learning virtual language to be part of something, to understand and experience it. Can we do the same with nature?
“Language not only records experience, it produces it” – Robert Macfarlane
If words like “dandelion” or “heron” are removed from the dictionary to include “chat room” or “voicemail,” then we are limiting the experiences we can have with nature.
For example, the word “petrichor” defines an experience. When the rain falls, it releases a very particular smell, something that makes us connect, that makes us experience it from other senses. We don’t just observe rain, we feel it, we smell it, we connect it with emotions.
Likewise, Australian environmental philosopher Glenn Albrecht coined the term “solastalgia” to describe the anguish or pain caused by the loss of territory. Now, if we allow the words about nature to be forgotten, then we will be unable to register what we are destroying, both environmental awareness and nature.
In the sense of rescuing what we experience from nature, let’s name different scenarios. For now we only know its words in English, but we could grant new terms in Spanish. Let’s experience the environment from language with these…
20 words about nature
A ‘Ghnúig: steep slope
Adnasjur: Large waves that come after a succession of smaller waves
Blinter: A dazzling cold
Boobles: Short, choppy waves caused by the wind
Caitein: First slight rumor after a calm
Dringey: Light rain that has not yet soaked
Éit: Placing quartz stones in moorland streams so that they shine in the moonlight
Feetings: Footprints of creatures as they appear in the snow
Flinchin: Deceptive promise of better weather, used by meteorologists
Glassel: A pebble by the sea that shined when wet and then turned into a dull rock.
Hot-spong: The sudden power of heat felt when the sun rises from under a cloud
Kimmeridge: The light breeze that blows across your skin when you’re sunbathing
Lunkie: Hole deliberately left in a wall for an animal to pass through
Skiddle: Throwing flat stones so that they skim the surface of the water
Slogger: Sucking sound made by waves against the side of a boat
Squatted: Splashed with water or mud by a passing vehicle
Stravaig: Wander aimlessly, without guidance, whether by destination or result
Summer Geese: Steam rising from the moor when rain is followed by hot sunshine
Terra nullius: Place of nothingness, uninhabitable land
Ungive: Thaw