Weather wise, early morning golfing has been amazing these past weeks. The temperature has been warm, the sun has been shining, and the wind has been just a zephyr most mornings. Zephyr is defined as a gentle breeze. This means not a total calm and not over a 15 km wind. It is just a slight light wind. Amazing golf weather for Saskatchewan.
Zephyr can also mean a moderate breeze from the west. In Greek mythology Zephyrus is the son of Eos, the goddess of the dawn, and Astraeus, a titan. Zephyrus and his brothers, Boreas (the north wind), Notus (the south wind), and Eurus (the east wind) are known as the Anemoi, the Greek wind gods. Zephyrus is the most gentle and favourable of the winds, and is also associated with flowers, springtime and even procreation. In myths, he is presented as the tender breeze. Zephyrus, along with his brother Boreas, is one of the most prominent of the Anemoi; they are frequently mentioned together by poets. They, and their brother, Notus, were seen as the three useful and favourable winds. Eurus, the east wind, was seen as a bad omen.
Zephyr blew into English with the help of William Shakespeare, who used the word in his play Cymbeline: “Thou divine Nature, thou thyself thou blazon’st / In these two princely boys! They are as gentle / As zephyrs blowing below the violet.”
Other wind describing words are breeze, breathe, waft, crosswind, headwind, and tailwind.
A tailwind blows in the direction you are moving. Tailwinds that help a golf ball soar farther on long shots are useful but on the shorter wedge shots make the club selection difficult. You can easily overestimate or underestimate the distance of the shot not knowing how much the wind will aid the ball flight from 120 yards and in. A headwind forces the golfer to select a longer hitting club but is easier to predict and control as the wind is coming direction at you. Crosswinds are difficult as any spin on the ball is magnified significantly in the direction the wind is blowing. I personally find crosswinds the most challenging of the wind directions on a golf course.
Waft is a slight or gentle movement of air and is a synonym for zephyr. An almost non-existent movement of air is a breath. Breath, as a wind term, is used mostly in the negative sense, as in there is hardly a breath of air today.
Irish hydrographer Francis Beaufort devised the wind scale that bears his name in 1805. When Beaufort was a Hydrographer of the British Navy in the 1830s the wind speed scale was adopted officially and first used during the voyage of HMS Beagle under Captain Robert FitzRoy. In the early 19th century, naval officers made regular weather observations, but there was no standard scale, so they could be very subjective. One man's "stiff breeze" might be another's "soft breeze". Beaufort succeeded in standardizing a scale.
A breeze can be a light gentle wind but can apply to any air movement from 6 kms/hr to 49 kms/hr. The Beaufort Wind Scale lists 5 categories of a breeze: light, gentle, moderate, fresh, or strong.
A gale is a strong current of air from 51 kms/hr to 88 kms/hr. Gales are not good for golfing, and the Beaufort Wind Scale describes three types: near gale, gale, and strong gale. Then there are storm winds. A storm has wind speeds of 89 kms/hr to 102 kms/hr. Violent storms can blow up to 117 kms/hr. A hurricane starts at 118 kms/hr. Hurricane Patricia holds the record for wind speed at 345 kms/hr. It occurred in the Pacific Ocean in 2015.
Unfortunately, Admiral Beaufort never did include a wind speed for a zephyr. But that is the type of wind I like for golfing as it can keep a hot day liveable on the course and not affect a golf ball very much.
John would like to know if anyone has a sincere interest in a relevant word that he could possibly research for an upcoming column. If so, please send your requests to wordwisdom2021@gmail.com . Words will be selected according to relevance and research criteria. We cannot confirm that all words will be used.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
