Balls made of packed snow, or when a situation grows rapidly bigger and bigger like a rolling snowball gathering more snow.
Compound of 'snow' (from Proto-Germanic) and 'ball' (from Old Norse); literally means a ball of snow, but evolved as a metaphor for something that grows exponentially.
When you roll a snowball downhill, it's a perfect visual metaphor for how problems, debts, or rumors spread—each rotation picks up more until it becomes unstoppable.
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