Foggy with Fig – Even the English may be wrong with their English

I like talking to strangers and so while we were waiting for time to allow us leave, I got into a chat with the Scottish bus driver. The weather was cold and there was mist in the air. Suddenly, I got into a doubt, could we call a foggy condition a mist? Maybe the two are different. So I asked my Scottish bus driver “How do you describe this weather?”

Strange as it may sound his reply was “We call it fig.”

When an English man talks strange things to an already fogged person expect him to pause. When my pause ended, I asked him “Fig? You are you sure about that?”

“Yeah we call it Fig”

I was now ready to dare, “Oh! Well I think Fig is just the name of a tree”

“Tree!!!” well I saw him confused now. A second Scottish guy had arrived for the bus and the bus driver checked with him. Well, to my rescue he backed my thoughts that fig (tree) may be found in fog but calling a fog as fig may be foggy.

“Well my nephew keeps telling me there’s fig outside. It’s strange why he says that” Retorted the bus driver. Whatever, he meant, we were sure that his nephew had fogged his idea of fig and fog.

Well the dictionary tells me that there’s not much difference between fog and mist except that a mist may sometimes refer to a thin layer of condensed vapour.