different between snowflake vs flother

English

Alternative forms

• snow-flake

Etymology

From snow +? flake. Compare Saterland Frisian Sneeflokke (“snowflake”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: sn??fl?k
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?sn??.fle?k/
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /?sno?.fle?k/

Noun

snowflake (plural snowflakes)

1. A crystal of snow, having approximate hexagonal symmetry.
2. Any of several bulbous European plants, of the genus Leucojum, having white flowers.
3. The snow bunting, Plectrophenax nivalis.
4. (slang, derogatory) Someone who believes they are as unique and special as a snowflake.
5. (slang, derogatory) Someone hypersensitive to insult or offense, especially a young person with politically correct sensibilities.
   • 2017, Dylan Kyle, quoted in "Campus Voices", The Mugdown (Texas A&M University), August 2017, page 15:

     When have words ever hurt anyone? The triggered snowflakes at this liberal university are trying to literally murder our freedom of speech.

   • 2017, Ben Brill, "What's wrong with saying 'Happy holidays' this December", High Tide (Redondo Union High School), 20 October 2017, page 7:

     Fox News pundits claim to be upset because companies are choosing to embrace the "holidays" rather than "Christmas" to avoid offending any liberal snowflakes.

   • 2020, Erin McLaughlin, "Free speech cowed at GMU", The Collegian (Grove City College), 31 January 2020, page 8:

     Within a few minutes of stepping foot on the school grounds, a triggered snowflake called the police. Multiple officers accosted Kevin McMahon, a YAF staffer, and threatened to arrest him for exercising his free speech rights since he was outside the designated "free speech area."

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:snowflake.
6. (ophthalmology) A type of lesion that appears as scattered white-brown spots under high magnification light microscopy.
7. Something that is unique in every presentation.
8. (slang, usually derogatory) A Caucasian person.
9. (historical) Someone (usually white) who was opposed to the abolition of slavery (Missouri, 1860s)

Usage notes

The pejorative sense of "an overly sensitive person" arose from a still-common misconception that no two snowflakes are alike. "Snowflake" as a derogatory term was popularized by its use in the 1996 novel Fight Club, by Chuck Palahniuk (see quotation above), but the insult had existed for a significant amount of time prior to this, although not in popular use. In recent years, the meaning has expanded from "a person who believes they are unique" to also denote someone who is too sensitive and is easily offended, based on conceptions of snowflakes' fragility and weakness.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• ?
• snowfleck

Verb

snowflake (third-person singular simple present snowflakes, present participle snowflaking, simple past and past participle snowflaked)

1. To fall in the manner of a snowflake.
2. (computing, databases) To arrange (data) into a snowflake schema.

Further reading

• snowflake on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Leucojum on Wikispecies.Wikispecies

References

Anagrams

• flowsnake

English

Noun

flother (countable and uncountable, plural flothers)

1. (obsolete) A snowflake.
2. (obsolete, Lancashire) Nonsensical talk.
3. (obsolete, Cumberland) A miry bog.

References