How cold do you feel?

[cjsmith]

I am firmly convinced that chilly is colder than cold. Cold hisses across your skin; chilly gets into your bones. Cold means a parka in the snow, and thin watery sunlight; chilly means trying to type with mittens in your office, and sniffles, and a deadline.

California has chilly. Of all the places I've lived*, northern California does chilly in the biggest way.

*eg Boston

(From a comment elsewhere.)

Comments

[sunnydale47.livejournal.com]

When I was a child, my mother would always tell me, "Put on a sweater, it's chilly out." Or at most, "Put on a jacket, it's chilly out." So to me, chilly has always meant a little bit cold, but not very.

Cold applies to both absolute temperature, and to my perception of temperature. "Brr, it's cold today -- only 30 degrees" can be said when I'm warm and toasty in my blanket-cloth robe and fuzzy slippers, but "Brr, it's cold!" can be said when it's 62 degrees and I'm outside with no jacket or sweater.

I love exploring what the same words mean to different people. Forgetting that connotations can very widely is the basis of sooooo much misunderstanding and miscommunication!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Chilly means the same thing to me, I think, as it does to you. I'll use "it's cold" for 30 degrees but since I know I'm such a coldness-wimp I'll probably say instead "I'm cold" for the 62 degrees without a jacket.

The phenomenon I was trying to describe was that I *feel* colder when my environment is merely chilly than when it is truly cold. For some reason, chilly sinks in in a way that cold doesn't. (Probably because "cold" comes along with a coat or functioning heat in a house!)