Scottish people have more than 400 different words for snow

Scots have 421 words for snow, even more than the Inuit people, researchers have found.

The terms include 'snaw', 'sneesi' and 'skelf' and have been collated by academics compiling a new Scottish thesaurus.

The pilot project at University of Glasgow is creating the first Historical Thesaurus of Scots, classifying every word in the Scots language from earliest records to the present day.

The first two categories featured on the thesaurus website concentrate on words for weather and sport, with Scots having more terms for marbles than football.

Other Scottish words relating to snow include "feefle", meaning to swirl, "snaw-pouther", which is fine driving snow, and "flindrikin", a slight snow shower.

Dr Susan Rennie, lecturer in English and Scots language at the university, said: "Weather has been a vital part of people's lives in Scotland for centuries.

"The number and variety of words in the language show how important it was for our ancestors to communicate about the weather, which could so easily affect their livelihoods.

"There may be other words out there that we are not yet aware of, and that is where we would welcome the support of the public. If they use or remember words for particular sports or weather, we would love to hear about them."

Members of the public are invited to log comments or photographs on the website at www.scotsthesaurus.org or through Twitter @scotsthesaurus.