(n.) Origin 1760-1770
Definition: spoon, variant of obsolete spoom (of a ship) to run or scud before the wind + drift, spray blown from waves during a gale at sea. Spoondrift.
In other words, it’s what gives us “beach waves” in our hair (that are all the rage these days), and what cools off our sunburn during a trip to the coast. And it’s also the sea’s idea of an all-natural moisturizer.
Photo by Chris Richardson via Wikimedia Commons.
Quotes:
“Just the same, I guess I can show you girls a good time at spoondrift.”
– The Corner House Girls Under Canvas, Grace Brooks Hill
“Spoondrift is the spray from the tops of the waves,” explained Pearl.
– The Corner House Girls Under Canvas, Grace Brooks Hill
“And it was cold—oh, it was cold! The pinching cold was like a vise: spoondrift flew freezing, fold on fold. It coated them with ice.”
– The Ontario Readers: The High School Reader, 1886 Ministry of Education
I have never heard of this word. I looked it up in my dictionary just to be sure I understood it’s meaning right. It is also called spindrift. I like spoondrift better. I am not a fan of the ocean, but I do enjoy it’s mist. I used to spend summers in South Carolina with my sister and we went to the beach quite often.
I have sailed through alot of spindrift as we called it. Sailed around the world on a ship for a year. Spend alot of my childhood on the seacoast as well.
Lovely