Bonus points if there’s a known onomatopoeia to describe the sound.

    • Land_Strider@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Which country/language? In Turkish, the idea is similar but the wording a bit different, “karıncalanma” (being ant-y) is commonly used. Same thing is also used for when a body part goes numb due to having it in weird position for some time, like sleeping with your arm under your body or sitting on the toilet too much and having your legs be numb.

      There is also “parazit yapma” (making/doing parasites) used for the television thing.

      • stoy@lemmy.zip
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        7 months ago

        Swedish (:

        As for the numbness, if a foot goes numb, then we normally say that we “have sand in the foot” or that “the foot is asleep”

    • Rentlar@lemmy.caOP
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      7 months ago

      Yeah that’s a common one, I wonder if it would seen as more or less commonly like that depending on how cold the local climate is.

      • ALQ@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        California, here, and not any of the parts that get snow. (Closest we get is hail, which feels like it happens maybe twice a decade.) We called it “snow,” too. :)

  • Rentlar@lemmy.caOP
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    7 months ago

    What prompted this question is some Japanese TV service ended this past weekend for a relative and the word to describe the static noise was “sand storm”.

    Thought it might be interesting to hear what it’s called elsewhere.

    • lettruthout@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      So Japan still uses analog broadcast TV? Maybe it’s different for other US TVs, but since the switch to the digital broadcast system my TVs show black when a channel is not available. Snow has gone the way of the old test pattern of years ago.

      • Rentlar@lemmy.caOP
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        7 months ago

        Analog went offline in Japan around 2010/2011 if my memory serves me correctly, but some still have digital receivers that works with the RF jack. Now more or less it’s out of style and the static is just proverbial.

    • orgrinrt@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Had the exact same two in my childhood and youth in Finland. Probably some nuance differences in language, but semantically very similar ones! Muurahaissota and lumisade 🕺

    • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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      7 months ago

      Some of it is cosmic background radiation - it’s also machine vibrations, manufacturer defects, power line radiation, and nearby appliances. The more remote and well shielded you are the more likely it’s pure background radiation… but in a big city it’s likely to be local radiation sources. The inverse square law has a big role here.

      • Jajcus@kbin.social
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        7 months ago

        …and if you are interested in the sound of static rather than the image, then the Polish word is: „szumi”. This can be approximated in English as: ‘shoomy’. The ‘sz’ sound does sound like static.

        The funny thing is that our ‘sz’ (in „szumi”) and ‘ś’ (in „śnieży”) usually sound exactly the same to English or French speakers, while for us they are quite distinct sounds.

      • Jajcus@kbin.social
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        7 months ago

        I am not even able to write it phonetically in English. Ask Google Translate - its pronunciation is close-enough.

        In IPA it is: /ɕɲɛʑɨ/

  • Shdwdrgn@mander.xyz
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    7 months ago

    Back in the days when we all had antennas and cable hadn’t been born yet, the static stations were a great thing to watch if there might be a tornado in your area. Apparently if one formed, it would significantly change the look of the snow on the TV and give you a warning to quickly head to the basement. I never actually saw it happen, but there were a couple times we had local warnings and my parents plopped me down to keep an eye on the TV.