hiemal means of or pertaining to winter, wintry.
Why “hiemal” is a great word
Pertaining to winter; wintry. From the Latin hiemālis ("pertaining to winter"), from hiems ("winter"). Attested in English from the 1550s. Unlike vernal, with its promise of burgeoning life, or estival, shimmering with fertile heat, hiemal is the season of arrest and crystalline absence. It is the iron-hard silence of a frozen lake, the scent of woodsmoke threading through still air, and the profound, skeletal clarity of branches against a leaden sky—a world held in a state of severe and beautiful suspension, a season not of death but of drawn breath.
Etymology
From Latin hiemālis (“pertaining to winter”), from hiems (“winter”). More at hibernate.
adj
- Of or pertaining to winter, wintry.
Words closest in meaning
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