Mighty Winds

The internet is amazing. Friends forward articles, and I am always delighted to mine classical gold from them. An article about an enormous tuba, a musical instrument in the brass/winds category, featured a musician with the same last name as mine, no relation. This musician co-founded a wind quartet that he named Boreas Quartet, a lovely allusion to the Greek name for the north wind. I'm not sure the dictionary.com slideshow will come through, but as I checked out the etymology of Boreas, the slideshow with some fantastic words about wind magically appeared on the page. Breeze through the nine English words of the slideshow, and if you are eager for more, try researching the other Greek/Roman winds: Boreas/Aquilo (N), Notus/Auster (S), Eurus/Vulturnus (E), Zephyrus/Favonius (W), and Lips/Africus (SW). Other English words from Boreas include boreal (pertaining to the north), and a Latin phrase we may have mentioned before Aurora borealis, the northern Dawn, known better in English as the northern lights, a beautiful celestial phenomenon in the northern hemisphere.