NATURE’S BEAUTY

Explore Our Planet's Natural Wonders With These 10 Nature-Inspired Words

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The wonders of nature can’t be fully described. No person alive can explain the myriad of feelings that overcome us when we gaze upon a particularly breathtaking landscape. The magnificence of the Great Canyon and the splendor of the Northern Lights truly have a way of eluding words. Having said that, who’s to say that we can’t at least try? While nature can’t be explained by words, we have listed in this article a few instances in which nature influenced or inspired the creation of beautiful words that try their best to describe it.

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Ever taken a midnight stroll by a lake or a stream? Or maybe just sit by yourself next to a moonlit pool, relaxing in the silence only broken by the chirps of crickets? In both of these idyllic situations, you might have noticed a trail of moonlight shining on the water. The word moonglade is used to describe this charming phenomenon. The magnificence of the moonglade tends to be as striking as the darkness that surrounds it.

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This word doesn’t refer to a natural phenomenon, but rather to a system that involves nature. The word Èit comes from an ancient Gaelic practice in which quartz stones were placed in streams so that they would sparkle in the moonlight. While this word has a practical aspect to its meaning (the stones were placed to attract salmon), it is rather remarkable that such a small word can conjure up such beautiful imagery.

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This one is a little more commonly used, but that doesn’t make it any less captivating. Merriam-Webster defines celestial as "relating to the sky or visible heavens", as well as anything "suggesting heaven or divinity." Part of the charm of this word comes from how both of these meanings seem to effortlessly combine: Celestial is the perfect word to picture the indescribable wonder one feels when watching a star-filled sky. One might even hear a piece of celestial music, or contemplate the celestial beauty of a painting, and rediscover this feeling of heavenliness.

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Evergreen plants and trees are those that retain their leaves through the seasons. The word itself exudes resilience: no matter how cold the weather gets, evergreen flora maintain their brightness and splendor. Popular evergreen plants include lavenders, bergenias, and rhododendrons.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, this adjective can also be used to describe something "universally and continually relevant." An evergreen article, for instance, is one that continues to be popular or interesting over time. Can this article you are reading right now prove itself to be evergreen? Only time will tell.

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This one has a relatively new (and adorable) origin, and we hope that it might someday be an everyday word. In his book Landmarks, writer and academic Robert Macfarlane recalls meeting a five-year-old girl who coined the term honeyfur to describe "the soft seeds of grasses pinched between fingertips." One can’t help but be amazed at how such a young person can so perfectly describe the tickling sensation that comes from picking up a dandelion seed.

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Feetings is a regional term from the English county of Suffolk, and it is usually used to describe the footprints left in the snow by animals and birds. While the image alone of delicate tracks on a white snowy field is already filled with charm, there is something about the word feetings itself (or any of its variants footings, fettings, and feetens) that seems to invoke tiny footprints left by small, adorable creatures prancing around in winter. Which might not be entirely accurate: According to the English Dialect Dictionary, feetings can also be used for the prints of dogs, horses, and hunting quarries, among others.

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Imagine walking around one of Washington DC’s many parks in spring during the National Cherry Blossom Festival. Can you picture all those delicate flowers, filling every single cherry tree you pass by? Luckily, the English language has a single word that encapsulates all this beauty. Abloom is used to describe a tree or plant completely covered with flowers or blooms.

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Spoondrift describes the shower sprayed from sea waves during a gale or a storm. While these conditions might not sound particularly pleasant, there is a certain dangerous majestic beauty to a sea tempest that can’t be denied. And maybe, provided you are watching it from a comfortable and safe distance, that refreshing feeling of being lightly sprayed by spoondrift might help you lock in your mind an image that will be with you forever.

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We now reach another word that comes from a regional dialect. Pirr comes from the Shetland islands in Scotland, and it refers to a light breeze, specifically one that might cause small, delicate ripples on the surface of a calm body of water. By the way, this phenomenon is also known as a "cat’s paw", since these tiny waves look to some like cat prints. Sailors use cat paws to effectively predict the arrival of a gust of wind.

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This word comes from the mind of 19th-century poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, known for his habit of creating words to describe natural phenomena. Hopkins coined the term goldfoil to refer to a night sky lit by lightning in "zigzag dints and creasings". He is also credited with the charmingly beautiful word shivelight, used to describe "the lances of sunshine that pierce the canopy of a wood."