The sno cone

Yesterday’s (4./17) Wayno / Piraro Bizarro cartoon shows two snowmen conferring: Left Snowman reassures Right Snowman that the frozen confection that they are eating in a cone (“fruit-flavored crushed ice” (NOAD)) is not in fact snow — that would smack of, ick, cannibalism — but instead sno, a substance that merely resembles snow (Wayno’s title for the cartoon is Faux Cone); it’s just a sno cone / sno-cone (if you’re puzzled by the odd symbols in the cartoon — Wayno says there are 3 in this strip — see this Page) Using sno cone (or sno-cone or snocone) makes it formally clear — by the special spelling of the first element — that this is a Resemblance compound, in which the first element is to be understood as denoting not some model thing but something merely similar (perhaps simulated, imitation, or fake, but in any case not genuine). The respelling of genuine snow as resemblant sno is a perceptible (in this case visible) disclaimer of genuineness and indicator of mere resemblance.…