caliginous

English

WOTD – 28 January 2019

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French caligineux (“misty; obscure”), or directly from its Latin etymon cālīginōsus (“misty; dark, obscure”). Cālīginōsus is derived from cālīgō, cālīginis (“fog, mist, vapour; darkness, gloom”)) + -ōsus (suffix meaning ‘full of, prone to’ forming adjectives from nouns).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kəˈlɪdʒɪnəs/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) enPR: kə-lĭjʹə-nəs, -lĭjʹĭ-, IPA^(key): /kəˈlɪd͡ʒənəs/, /-ˈlɪdʒɪ-/
• Rhymes: -ɪdʒɪnəs, -ɪdʒənəs
• Hyphenation UK: ca‧li‧gin‧ous, US: ca‧lig‧i‧nous

Adjective

caliginous (comparative more caliginous, superlative most caliginous)

1. (archaic or literary) Dark, obscure; murky.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:dark

   Antonyms: see Thesaurus:shining

   • 1809, Edward Wells, “Of St. Paul’s Travels and Voyages into Phrygia, Galatia, Mysia, Troas, Macedonia, Achaia, &c. till His Fourth Return to Jerusalem, after His Conversion”, in An Historical Geography of the Old and New Testament: In Two Volumes, volume II, Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, →OCLC, section I (Of St. Paul’s Travels, from His Leaving Jerusalem, after the Council there Held, to His Departure out of the Asiatic Continent for Europe), page 258:

     Hierapolis is ſeated over-againſt Laodicea, where are to be ſeen baths of hot waters, and the Plutonium. [...] The Plutonium is under the brow of the hill, the entrance into which is no wider than that a man can thruſt himſelf through; yet it is very deep within, of a quadrangular form, containing about the compaſs of half an acre, and is filled with ſuch a thick and caliginous air, that the ground cannot be ſeen.

   • 1869 November, “The Land of the Malay: A Record of Travel in the Oriental Tropics”, in [Thomas] Mayne Reid, editor, Onward: A Magazine for the Young Manhood of America, New York, N.Y.: Onward Publishing Office, →OCLC, page 491:

     By the time breakfast was announced, the land had faded into a thin caliginous streak; and, except passing a huge unwieldy Chinese junk, which lay at anchor, though her lateen sails were hoisted, nothing worthy of note occurred during the day.

   • 1981, T[homas] Coraghessan Boyle, “The Niger”, in Water Music, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown, →ISBN; republished London: Granta Books, 1998, →ISBN, page 155:

     Inside the atmosphere was rank and caliginous: fumes rose from puddles, groans sifted through the shadows.

   • 2010, Francis Wheen, Strange Days Indeed: The Golden Age of Paranoia, paperback edition, London: Fourth Estate, HarperCollins Publishers, →ISBN, page 21:

     They say the darkest hour is just before the dawn, and caliginous thoughts often swirled through his murky, insomniac mind as he lay awake [...]

Derived terms

• caliginosity
• caliginously
• caliginousness

 

Related terms

• caligation
• caligo

Translations

dark, obscure — see dark,‎ murky

Further reading

• “caliginous”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.