SASTRUGA

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 19 December 2011

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SASTRUGA  (n. pl. SASTRUGI)

Definition(s):

1. (n.) one of a series of wavelike ridges of hard snow formed by the wind in polar regions or on high mountains, typically aligned parallel to the direction of the prevailing wind; usually used in the plural form: sastrugi

Useful information for game players:

• Front hooks: (none)
• Back hooks: (none)
• Anagrams: (none)
• Longer extensions: (none)
• Wraparounds: (none)
• Other Spellings: ZASTRUGA / ZASTRUGI
• Related Forms: (none)

Epilogue:
Modern explorer and mountaineer Reinhold Messner described a treacherous journey across SASTRUGI during a trek across the south pole:

For days we were going through fields of sastrugi.... From above, the landscape here would look like a freshly ploughed field. The ground still climbed evenly. We did not pull the sledges, we tugged them across the heavy snow and tore them free when they jammed between sastrugi. Thus we went on day after day across the ice.
~ Reinhold Messner, Antarctica: Both Heaven and Hell (1991)

English borrowed this word from German, where it was taken from the Siberian Russian word zastruga (“groove” or “ridge”).

This week’s theme:
Just in time for the upcoming solstice, this week we’ll hunker down with some wintry words.

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