Word To Use Today: snorkel.

This has to be one of the silliest words in the English language:

snorkel, snorkel, snorkel...

In fact, I think the word snorkel might be the literary equivalent of sunshine: I mean, is it possible to say the word snorkel three times without feeling just a bit happier?

I do hope not.

You use a snorkel to see the marvels of life underwater, of course:



(Gosh, that does look lovely at the moment, when our pond here is thick with ice).

But of course there's no accounting for the ways people choose to have fun, and some people use their snorkels to play underwater hockey or rugby.

Or, indeed, to hunt fish with spears.

Most baffling of all, from my point of view, some people go for bog snorkling, where you get no view at all. This involves making your way through a muddy channel cut through a peat bog near  Llanwrtyd Wells in Wales. The current World Champion is Andrew Holmes.


Some people (there are all sorts) have even branched out into mountain bike bog snorkelling and triathlon bog snorkelling.

I must stop here, as the idea of triathlon bog snorkelling  is so bizarre that i find I've lost all belief in the existence of snorkelling as either a word or an activity.

Snorkel, snorkel, snorkel...

...hm. Perhaps the word snorkel is also dangerously likely to nudge people towards gibbering madness.

Whoops.

Word To Use Today: snorkel. This word comes from the German word schnorchel, which in turn comes from schnarchen, to snore.

By the way, submarines have snorkels to allow them to take in air, too, although submariners tend to call them snorts.