brumous

English edit

WOTD – 24 January 2019

Etymology edit

A brumous day in Lübeck, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.

From brume +‎ -ous, probably modelled after French brumeux (“foggy, hazy, misty”),^[1] from Late Latin brūmōsus (“wintry”),^[2] from Latin brūma (“winter solstice; winter; winter cold”) + -ōsus (suffix forming adjectives from nouns). Brūma is derived from brevima, brevissima (“shortest”), the superlative of brevis (“brief; short”) (the winter solstice being the shortest day of the year), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *mréǵʰus (“brief, short”).

Pronunciation edit

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbɹuːməs/
Audio (Southern England) (file)
(General American) IPA^(key): /ˈbɹuməs/, /ˈbɹə-/
Hyphenation: brum‧ous

Adjective edit

brumous (comparative more brumous, superlative most brumous)

(literary) Foggy or misty; wintry. [from mid 19th c.]
- 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, “A Little Innocent”, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume I, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849, →OCLC, page 233:
  The blond misses of Albion see nothing in the dull inhabitants of their brumous isle, which can compare with the ardour and vivacity of the children of the South. We bring our sunshine with us; we are Frenchmen, and accustomed to conquer.
- 1866 October, “Essays at Odd Times”, in David Masson, editor, Macmillan’s Magazine, volume XIV, number 84, London: Macmillan and Co. […], →OCLC, section XIV (Of a Fox Covert), page 476, column 2:
  One of the greatest charms of fox-hunting undoubtedly is, that it disposes of all the dirty weather which goes to make up three-fourths of an English winter. Wet, and drizzle, and muggy fog (the characteristics of our brumous and insular climate, according to numerous French authorities), are the capital on which it trades. To the hunting man a rainy morning in winter […] means sport, and society, and enjoyment.
- 1869 December, “Nebulæ”, in The Galaxy. An Illustrated Magazine of Entertaining Reading, volume VIII, number 6, New York, N.Y.: Sheldon & Company […], →OCLC, page 861, column 1:
  The Golden Gate was hardly to be seen at all, except on very favorable days, for the thick veil of ocean mist which hung over it. The whole scene was dull, sombre, brumous, depressing.
- 1872 July, Richard A[nthony] Proctor, “A Giant Planet”, in E[dward] L[ivingston] Youmans, editor, The Popular Science Monthly, volume I, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton and Company, […], →OCLC, page 293:
  Let us compare these observations made in our brumous latitudes with those effected by Father [Angelo] Secchi with the fine equatorial of the Roman Observatory.
- 1974, Lawrence Durrell, Monsieur or The Prince of Darkness: A Novel, London: Faber and Faber, →ISBN; republished in The Avignon Quintet: Monsieur, Livia, Constance, Sebastian, Quinx, London: Faber and Faber, 1992, →ISBN, page 23:
  She worked under the great tapestry with its glowing but subdued tones—huntsmen with lofted horns had been running down a female stag. After the rape, leaving the grooms to bring the trophy home, they galloped away into the soft brumous Italian skyline; […]