White flies are poetic or colloquial idioms. Appeared in Russian due to the observation of ordinary people. What is popularly called white flies? And what is the history of this phraseology?
White flies: meaning
This phraseologism has always been understood as fluttering snowflakes or falling snow. White flies called the first snowfall, which, as a rule, took place in the fall. Snow flakes, consisting of coalesced snowflakes against the general background of fallen leaves, bare trees, gray sky and dark earth, not yet covered by a snow cover, in appearance seemed like a large swarm of white flies that moves in one direction. Therefore, "flies" began to be called "white."
With the beginning of winter, white flies ceased to be remembered, because falling snowflakes no longer had the ability to stick together as before, and there was no longer a black background that would make them stand out. However, since the beginning of March, with the advent of spring, they began to use the metaphor again. Because snow belated flakes against the general background of the earth with melted snow again became similar to the known image.
Method for the formation of metaphors
If you approach the method of forming this turnover from a scientific point of view, we can say that it appeared through a metaphorical transformation of a free phrase. Nowadays, in the dictionaries of this revolution “white flies” contains a “poetic” mark in the meaning of “falling snow”. It is used by authors of fiction.
You can also come across this phrase with a “colloquial” mark. As a rule, this way it is used by ordinary people in everyday life, during a conversation.
The meaning of the statement “reached white flies”
How else is the described phraseological unit used? In addition to the stable phrase, which is discussed in our article, the people also have the expression "reached white flies." In everyday life, peasants understood him to be a time delay with the harvest. Frosts have already passed or snow has fallen, and the crop from the fields has not yet been harvested.
Such a statement had a negative connotation and was used in speech when it was necessary to regret something or there was a need to reproach someone.
Snow flakes
It turns out that the reason for the appearance of phraseology is the loss of the first snow on the soil in the autumn period. How to explain the cause of snow? Where do the "white flies" come to us from?
If you resort to the help of science and try to figure out the reason for the appearance and formation of snowflakes, you can come to this conclusion. Snow is a special type of precipitation that forms when small raindrops freeze. “White flies” fly to the earth from the sky in the form of frozen rain. Snow consists of individual snowflakes, which in appearance are similar to six-pointed stars.
The first condition for the appearance of the so-called “white flies” on earth is the onset of cold weather. The main condition for the occurrence of precipitation in the form of snow is considered to be a temperature of 0 ºC, at which water begins to turn into ice. Rain clouds freeze in the sky at this temperature, after which the usual raindrops turn into “white flies”.
Due to the fact that there are a huge number of different shapes of snowflakes, scientists have come to the conclusion that it is not possible to meet two snowflakes with an identical pattern. 95% of such precipitation is composed of air. For this reason, if there are no strong gusts of wind on the street, the speed of falling snow is about 0.9 km / h.
It should be noted that with the help of studies in countries such as Norway, Finland and Sweden, it turned out that there are more than 180 words that are used to refer to snow and ice. In the language of the Eskimos, such expressions are slightly less - about 40. Thanks to them, people indicate the quality of the snow and its location.