The Eskimos, I'm told, have seventeen different words for shades of white. This is even more than there are in my imagination.

from DV by Diana Vreeland (italic hers), which I am enjoying more than I even thought possible. The only problem is that I can't read too much at once or else I start to talk like DV herself, and frankly, even she had trouble pulling that off at times!

Everyone who still believes that the Eskimos have X words for snow should go read The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax, right now. Or check out Geoff Pullum's Language Log postings here and here.