ศาลาชุมนุม

[David and Bui]

I see a sentence in a story: "ฝนตกลงมาเป็นฝอยละเอียด" and I wonder what kind of rain this describes. Might it be a drizzle?

And, how might this differ from "ฝนตกปรอยๆ" ?

Thanks.

[Rick Bradford]

Or even ฝนละออง and ฝนหยิม.......

[tod-daniels]

There appears to be a great number of ways to describe sprinkling, drizzling, misting, light, (insert your descriptive word here ) for those types of rain in thai.
ฝนตกปรอย ๆ
ฝนตกโปรยลงมา
ฝนตกพรำ ๆ
ฝนตกหยิม ๆ
ฝนตกปรอยปราย
ฝนตกประปราย

The thai wiki page for ฝนละออง says;
ฝนละออง หรือ ฝนหยิม
[1] คือหยาดน้ำฟ้าที่เป็นเม็ดมีขนาดเล็กละเอียดเป็นละออง หรือเป็นฝอยบาง ๆ มีเส้นผ่าศูนย์กลางเล็กกว่า 0.5 มิลลิเมตร (0.02 นิ้ว)
[2] ตกค่อนข้างสม่ำเสมอ เนื่องจากเป็นเม็ดเล็กละเอียดและอยู่ใกล้ชิดกันมาก สามารถลอยปลิวไปมาตามกระแสลมได้ มักตกจากเมฆสเตรตัสและเมฆสเตรโตคิวมูลัสระดับต่ำ จึงทำให้ทัศนวิสัยไม่ดี แตกต่างจากหมอกตรงที่ฝนละอองนี้จะตกจากท้องฟ้าลงสู่ดิน

[David and Bui]

Thank you, Tod.

[Pirin]

.....

[tod-daniels]

Not to beat a dead horse or anything , BUT on the topic of rain ..

I was reading a new dictionary I'd bought. It's the So Sethaputra (สอ เสถบุตร) two volume set. I bought it primarily because it has phonetic thai for the pronunciation of tricky words. Just in case you don't know what I mean; for the word มหาวิทยาลัย it shows มะ-หา-วิด-ทะ-ยา-ลัย.. <- not that that is a tricky word (it is an example of the pronunciation guide )

Anyway I saw an entry under the term ประชด which is normally;
to be sarcastic or to use a sarcastic or disrespectful comparison, to spite.. Plus it's often used in the compound ประชดประชัน

The entry for ประชด had this example;

หลังจากดินฟ้าอากาศแห้งแล้งไปนาน ฝนก็ตกประชดลงมาขนานใหญ่
After the long drought, it rained and rained with a vengeance. <-that's the english example in the dictionary NOT my translation

It would appear that the word ประชด in this instance is vengeance, as I doubt it could rain sarcastically ...

Anyway that's all I got...

[David and Bui]

Tod,

I bought the "New Model Thai-English Dictionary", compiled by "So Sethaputra", the two volume work, several decades ago. The publication date of this book is 1984. I have seen the English-Thai version under the name of his daughter, but I have not seen a new version of the original Thai-English.

My favorite entry is the one for อ้อมค้อม: "พวกข้าราชการชอบพูดอ้อมค้อม" ("Bureaucrats are fond of circumlocution.") When's the last time anyone has seen the word "circumlocution" used?

Is the one you bought an update?

[tod-daniels]

The only date I can find is 2552, but there're two prefaces, one to the first edition written by So Sethaputra and one to the second edition written by Thai Watana Panich Co., Ltd.

When I first saw them for sale at Chula bookstore they were small and quite thick (about A5 size). I didn't buy them at that time. A few months ago I decided to get them and when they showed up at my apartment the version of the books quite large (A4 sized) and quite thin. They are most definitely not a "carry around in your bag" sort of dictionary like the Domnern Sathienpong one I lug everywhere.

Doesn't the dictionary use some interesting example sentences?

One which I found funny, was ควัก - to scoop, gouge, dig out..
ฉัจะควักเอาลูกตาแกออกมาเล่นเป็นลูกหิน
I shall gouge your eyes and play marbles with them.

So far I haven't been able to work that sentence into a conversation , but I'm trying..

Back closer to the topic of rain. The คลังคำ or treasury/storehouse of words is one valuable book! It has an entire section devoted to different types of rain, clouds etc.

Because rain is such an integral part of thai life, in some regards I think the terms for types of rain to thaiz are like the terms for types of snow to eskimos..

[pi_choen]

What about
ฝนตกหนาเม็ด

[Pirin]

.....