Piblokto only exists among Arctic people, according to some doctors, but there’s no such word in any Inuit language. A hundred fifty years after it was first recorded, it’s still written that way in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders under “culture-bound syndrome.” But if a bunch of foreigners barged into your world, dragged your men away on dangerous expeditions, studied you like you were some alien, and demanded you explain every word you had for snow—wouldn’t you also run naked and dive into the frozen sea?
