etesian

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

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

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /ɪˈtiːzɪən/, /ɪˈtiːʒən/

Adjective[edit]

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[edit]

Noun[edit]

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[edit]

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