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simoom

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English

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Etymology

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From Arabic سَمُوم (samūm, hot wind), from سَمَّ (samma, to poison).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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simoom (plural simooms)

  1. A hot, dry, suffocating, dust-laden wind of the desert, particularly of Arabia, Syria, and neighboring countries, generated by the extreme heat of the parched deserts or sandy plains.
    • 1892, James Yoxall, chapter 5, in The Lonely Pyramid:
      The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom. Whirling wreaths and columns of burning wind, rushed around and over them.
    • 1916, James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Macmillan Press Ltd, paperback, page 101:
      Stephen's heart had withered up like a flower of the desert that feels the simoom coming from afar.

Translations

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