haboob

English

A haboob hanging over Phoenix, Arizona.

Etymology

From Arabic هَبُوب‎ (habūb, “strong wind”), from the root ه ب ب‎ (h-b-b).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /həˈbuːb/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːb

Noun

haboob (plural haboobs)

1. A violent sandstorm or duststorm in the deserts of Arabia, North Africa, India, or North America.

   Coordinate term: duster

   • 2013, Giles Slade, American Exodus: Climate Change and the Coming Flight for Survival, New Society Publishers, →ISBN, page 154:

     Americans used to call these storms “dusters,” but as a sign of increasing globalization, most news outlets now call them by their Gulf Arabic name haboob. […] In Blackwell, Oklahoma 21, 2012, a haboob with a storm front two miles across closed the town and stopped all traffic on I-35 while causing about half a million dollars in damage.

Translations

violent sandstorm

• Bulgarian: хабу́б m (habúb)
• Galician: habub (gl) m
• German: Haboob m, Habub (de) m
• Greek: χαμπούμπ (el) (champoúmp)
• Japanese: ハブーブ (ja) (habūbu)
• Russian: саму́м (ru) m (samúm)

Further reading

• haboob on Wikipedia.Wikipedia