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quinzhee (KWIN-zee) - n., (Canada) a shelter made by hollowing out a pile of snow.
Contrast an igloo, where it's built out of blocks of ice, and a snow cave, which is dug into an existing snowbank. Optimally, you build up and shape the pile before digging into it -- if only to keep from having it collapse. Because it's intended to be temporary, you don't have to be as careful as when building an igloo. From Slavey or a similar Athkabaskian language kóézhii, literally "in the shelter."
Thanks, Wikimedia!
---L.
Contrast an igloo, where it's built out of blocks of ice, and a snow cave, which is dug into an existing snowbank. Optimally, you build up and shape the pile before digging into it -- if only to keep from having it collapse. Because it's intended to be temporary, you don't have to be as careful as when building an igloo. From Slavey or a similar Athkabaskian language kóézhii, literally "in the shelter."
Thanks, Wikimedia!
---L.
