muggy

English

Etymology

From Old Norse mugga (“drizzle, mist”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmʌɡi/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌɡi

Adjective

muggy (comparative muggier, superlative muggiest)

1. (of the weather, air, etc.) Humid, or hot and humid.

   Synonyms: close, oppressive, sticky, sultry

   • 1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, chapter XXXV, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC:

     The next was a very unpropitious morning for a journey—muggy, damp, and drizzly.

   • 1887, H[enry] Rider Haggard, chapter X, in Allan Quatermain‎^[1]:

     What struck me as the most curious thing about this wonderful river was: how did the air keep fresh? It was muggy and thick, no doubt, but still not sufficiently so to render it bad or even remarkably unpleasant.

   • 1891, Thomas Hardy, chapter XXIX, in Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: James R[ipley] Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., […], →OCLC:

     The evening, though sunless, had been warm and muggy for the season, and Tess had come out with her milking-hood only, naked-armed and jacketless; certainly not dressed for a drive.

   • 1964 June 16, “All Eyes On Lema At U.S. Open This Week”, in The Indianapolis Star, volume 62, number 11, Indianapolis, Ind., page 22:

     Muggy heat—temperature in the 90s and high humidity—greeted early arrivals for the 72-hole, three-day test, rated the hardest and most important in the sport.

2. (obsolete) Wet or mouldy.

   muggy straw

3. (obsolete, slang) Drunk.

Derived terms

• muggily
• mugginess

Translations

humid or hot and humid

• Belarusian: ду́шны (dúšny)
• Bulgarian: задушен (bg) (zadušen)
• Catalan: xafogós (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 悶熱／闷热 (zh) (mēnrè)

• Finnish: kuumankostea (hot and humid)
• French: étouffant (fr), humide (fr)
• German: schwül (de)
• Japanese: 蒸し暑い (ja) (むしあつい, mushiatsui)
• Latin: aestifer (la)
• Maori: haitutu, korire
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: бүгчим (mn) (bügčim)

  Mongolian: ᠪᠦᠭᠴᠢᠮ (büɣčim)

• Plautdietsch: schwool
• Polish: parny (pl), parno (pl)
• Russian: уду́шливый (ru) (udúšlivyj), ду́шный (ru) (dúšnyj), спёртый (ru) (spjórtyj)
• Welsh: trymaidd (cy), clòs (cy), mwll (cy)

References

• (drunk): John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary