simoom

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, US) enPR: sĭmo͞omʹ; IPA^(key): /sɪˈmuːm/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːm

Noun

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

hot, dry wind

• Arabic: سَمُوم m (samūm)
• Armenian: սամում (hy) (samum)
• Azerbaijani: səmum
• Belarusian: саму́м m (samúm)
• Bulgarian: саму́м m (samúm)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 西蒙風／西蒙风 (zh) (xīméngfēng)

• Dutch: samoem (nl) m
• Esperanto: samumo, simuno
• Estonian: samuum
• Finnish: samum (fi)
• French: simoun (fr) m
• Georgian: სამუმი (samumi)
• German: Samum m
• Greek: σιμούν (el) (simoún)
• Hungarian: számum (hu)
• Italian: simun m
• Japanese: シムーン (shimūn)
• Malay: samum
• Persian: سموم (fa) (samum)
• Polish: samum (pl) m
• Portuguese: simum m
• Russian: саму́м (ru) m (samúm)
• Slovene: samum m
• Spanish: simún m
• Swedish: samum (sv) c
• Tajik: самум (samum)
• Ukrainian: саму́м m (samúm)
• Uzbek: samum (uz)