Today we take our measure—a whirlwind measure—of Beaufort Scale Day. Historians may know the day falls on the birth anniversary of Sir Francis Beaufort in 1774; meteorologists and seafaring sorts may know the Beaufort Wind Force Scale has long since been enhanced, refined and adjusted since its development 200 years ago. But anyone can appreciate Beaufort's breathtaking idea: since one person's breeze might be another's zephyr, wouldn't it be useful to replace subjective words with objective numbers to describe wind? (来源：EnglishCN.com)

While it's difficult to object to objectivity, we still prefer words to numbers when it comes to talking up the wind. Consider the tales of two wind-words already mentioned: breeze and zephyr. Both entered English in the first half of the 17th century: zephyr, a light, gentle, delicate wind, honors the god of the west wind, while breeze, a light, gentle wind, is believed to come from the Spanish brisa, meaning "northeast wind."

And of course, we can't resist shooting the breeze about various breezes systematized by Beaufort. They range from light to gentle to moderate to fresh to strong breezes, and encompass speeds of 4 to 31 miles per hour. Then there are the valley breeze, mountain breeze, land breeze, and sea breeze, none of which made Beaufort's scale.