etesian

English

Etymology

From Latin etesius (“annual”), from Ancient Greek ἐτήσιος (etḗsios, “annual”), from ἔτος (étos, “year”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪˈtiːzɪən/, /ɪˈtiːʒən/

Adjective

etesian (not comparable)

1. Pertaining to a dry north wind which blows in the eastern Mediterranean.
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:
     , II.ii.3:

     Is it from those etesian winds, or melting of snow in the mountains under the Equator […], or from those great dropping perpetual showers […]?

   • 1997, Thomas Pynchon, Mason & Dixon, New York: Henry Holt and Company, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 77:

     […] Dixon, assailed without mercy by his Sensorium, almost in a swoon, finds himself, on Nights of Cloud, less and less able to forgo emerging at dusk, cloaked against the Etesian wind, and making directly for the prohibited parts of town.

Translations

pertaining to a specific eastern Mediterranean wind

• Catalan: etesi m
• French: étésien (fr)

Noun

etesian (plural etesians)

1. A dry north wind which blows in the eastern Mediterranean.
   • 1671, R[alph] Bohun, “[Of the Etesian, or Anniversary VVinds: Their Several Species]”, in A Discourse Concerning the Origine and Properties of VVind. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by W. Hall for Tho[mas] Bowman, →OCLC, pages 118–119:

     [...] I have in England for ſome years paſt, kept by me an exact table, or Ephemeris both of the Vernall, and Summer Eteſians; but found the VVinds no leſſe Variable in thoſe Months, then at other Seaſons.

Translations

dry north wind which blows in the eastern Mediterranean

• Catalan: etesi
• French: étésien (fr) m
• Greek:

  Ancient: ἐτησίαι m pl (etēsíai)

• Italian: etesio m
• Macedonian: елешник m (elešnik)

Further reading

• etesian on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Etesian Wind in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Anagrams

• senaite