pea-souper

See also: peasouper and pea souper

English

WOTD – 23 March 2021

Etymology

Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square during the Great Smog of London, which blanketed London in a severe pea-souper (sense 1) from 5 to 9 December 1952.

From pea soup +‎ -er (suffix meaning ‘person or thing connected with’);

• (dense, yellowish fog”): from the appearance of the fog
• (French-Canadian person): may be from the prevalence of pea soup in French cuisine: compare pea soup (“(slang, derogatory) French person”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpiːˌsuːpə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpiˌsupɚ/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: pea-soup‧er

Noun

pea-souper (plural pea-soupers)

1. (British, Canada, informal) A dense, yellowish fog, often mixed with smoke; a pea-soup fog, a smog.

   Synonyms: pea soup fog, pea-soup fog, peasoup fog

   Hypernym: fog

   Coordinate terms: superfog, smog, vog

   A man bumped into a lamp post during a pea-souper; he immediately apologised to it, not realising what it was.

   I can hear the bell on the buoy, but I can’t see anything in this pea-souper.

   • 2004, Andrea Levy, chapter 35, in Small Island‎^[1], London: Review, page 346:

     The dust surrounded us like a London pea-souper.

2. (Canada, slang, derogatory) A French-Canadian person, especially a Francophone from the province of Québec.

   Those pea-soupers are the worst drivers on the road!

Alternative forms

• peasouper, pea souper

Related terms

• pea-soupy

 

Translations

dense, yellowish fog

• Bulgarian: гъста мъгла (gǎsta mǎgla), смог m (smog)
• Finnish: hernerokkasumu (fi)
• French: purée de pois (fr) f
• Italian: nebbia fitta f, nebbione m

French-Canadian person

Further reading

• pea soup fog on Wikipedia.Wikipedia