snowchild

plural snowchildren

1. A visual representation of a child made from snow.

   Fir trees, pregnant with snowchild, sway heavily in the gilding sun.

   1979, David Green, A Pacific Crest Odyssey: Walking the Trail from Mexico to Canada, Wilderness Press, →ISBN, page 112

   5 more examples

   And she wrote her letters: one to Joyce, that told of her safety without disclosing her place of refuge; another a longer, fuller one, to Mr. Chester, telling him of all that had happened, of her doubts and difficulties, and begging him to come to her; “for, you know, dear old Gabriel,” she said, “that my mother made you a sort of guardian, and, as you have plenty of money, and can go where you please, do let it please you to come to the poor “snowchild,” who has fled out into the snow, and is shivering all alone in the cold world.” This latter clause was purely metaphorical, as Doris was sitting comfortably by the fireside, with Mrs. Howell blandly contemplating her from the opposite corner, and meditating, like Aunt Lotty, on the possibility of a wedding, with Mr. Chester and Doris for bridegroom and bride.

   1868 November, “Hugh Carmichael’s Secret”, in The Odd Fellow’s Companion, Devoted to the Interests of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and General Literature, volumes IV—1868–1869, Columbus, Ohio: M. C. Lilley & Co., […], “Chapter XXVII”, page 213, column 1

   Another example of the stylised mould into which earlier stories are fashioned to become nouvelles is that of the snowchild (Montaiglon et Raynaud, Fabliaux, Vol. I, No. XIV; Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles, XIX) to which reference has already been made.

   1954, Janet M. Ferrier, Forerunners of the French Novel: An Essay on the Development of the Nouvelle in the Late Middle Ages, Manchester University Press, page 51

   The play, entitled “Snowflake”, was based on a Russian legend about a childless couple who were given a snowchild by the children of the village. The snowchild comes to life when the Snow King takes pity on the couple and turns the children’s snowchild into a real child.

   1975, The Wisconsin Times, page 13, column 2

   Todd still gripped the misshapen reddish chimneytop in the fist that had collapsed the roof, flattening the gingerbread house and with it the little cookie snowman and snowwoman and snowchild.

   1978, DeKalb Literary Arts Journal: The Magazine of Literature and the Arts of DeKalb Community College, volume 12, page 11

   Christ Almighty, a child in Christ. I’m getting hot, hot’s what I’m getting. The top of my skull is lifting off. For Christ’s sake, a child. It’ll be a snowchild. The first snowbody will now become somebody. A child. It’s already on a journey.

   1988, Tinch Minter, Anthony Vivis, transl., The Conquest of the South Pole & Man to Man (The Royal Court Writers Series), Methuen Drama, translation of original by Manfred Karge, →ISBN, page 18

   Synonyms: snowkid