wafture

English

Etymology

From waft +‎ -ure.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈwɑf.t͡ʃɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈwɒf.t͡ʃə/

Noun

wafture (countable and uncountable, plural waftures)

1. (archaic) Something that is wafted, such as a smell or sound.
   • 1873, Lew Wallace, chapter 8, in The Fair God‎^[1], Boston: James R. Osgood, page 253:

     lower roofs, from which, as from hanging gardens, floated waftures sweet as the perfumed airs of the Indian isles

   • 1911, Jack London, “The Seed of McCoy”, in South Sea Tales‎^[2], New York: Macmillan, page 267:

     Stray waftures of invisible gases bit his eyes and made them sting.

   • 1936, John Cowper Powys, chapter 9, in Maiden Castle‎^[3], Woodstock, NY: Overlook Press, published 2001, page 416:

     It is doubtful, however, if she would have allowed quite so deep a wafture of lamentation to have passed her lips had she been alone.

   • 2016, Robert Kelly, “XO”, in Opening the Seals‎^[4], Brooklyn, NY: Autonomedia, page 154:

     and sniff at your waftures / to analyze your lust / and smell the pheromones of everyone you kissed,

2. (archaic) The act of wafting something.
   • c. 1599, William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar‎^[5], Act II, Scene 1:

     […] you answer’d not, / But, with an angry wafture of your hand, / Gave sign for me to leave you:

   • 1785, Henry Boyd (translator), Inferno by Dante Alighieri, Dublin: P. Byrne, Canto 1, p. 198,^[6]

     Then those that sing amid the purging flame, / Inspir’d by ling’ring hope at last to claim / A tardy wafture to the happy shore.

   • 1821 October, Charles Lamb, “Witches and Other Night-Fears”, in The London Magazine‎^[7], volume 4, number 22, page 387:

     […] the gentle Thames […] landed me, in the wafture of a placid wave or two, alone, safe and inglorious, somewhere at the foot of Lambeth palace.

   • 1922, Angela Morgan, “Afternoon Tea”, in Because of Beauty‎^[8], New York: Dodd, Mead, page 105:

     The trees […] smile and nod and chatter, / Spreading their skirts most graciously, / Gesturing gayly with each wafture of the breeze.

Synonyms

• gust
• puff
• wave