Vaguely Related

The Eskimos, I'm told, have seventeen different words for shades of white. This is even more than there are in my imagination.

from DV by Diana Vreeland (italic hers), which I am enjoying more than I even thought possible. The only problem is that I can't read too much at once or else I start to talk like DV herself, and frankly, even she had trouble pulling that off at times!

Everyone who still believes that the Eskimos have X words for snow should go read The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax, right now. Or check out Geoff Pullum's Language Log postings here and here.