A vocabulary of landscape — a landscape of words
1068 entries
vernal
Vernal means relating to spring. It is a working term in biology and astronomy rather than a poetic one: The vernal equinox is the moment the sun crosses the celestial equator going north, and a <a href="https://rewilding.mx/word/vernal-pool/" class="word-autolink">vernal pool is a seasonal wetland that fills in spring and dries by summer. A vernal species is one whose whole above-ground life happens before the canopy closes over it.
Etymology
The word is Latin for of the spring, from the noun for spring itself, which is related to the Greek word for the same season and to the Sanskrit. It is one of a set of four and the others are worth having: aestival for summer, autumnal, and hibernal for winter, the last of which gives hibernate.