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vaporous

adj
/ˈveɪpəɹəs/UK/ˈveɪpəɹəs/US

Etymology

From Middle English vaporous, from Late Latin vapōrōsus (“full of steam”), from Latin vapor (“exhalation; smoke; steam, vapour”) (possibly related to Proto-Indo-European *kwep- (“to boil; to smoke, steam; aroma; strong odour”)) + -ōsus (suffix meaning ‘full of, overly, prone to’ forming adjectives from nouns). The English word is analysable as vapour + -ous. Possibly a doublet of hope. Cognates * French vaporeux (“misty, vaporous; filmy, transparent”) * Italian vaporoso (“flimsy, gauzy; fluffy; vaporous”) * Portuguese vaporoso * Spanish vaporoso (“airy; vaporous”)

  1. derived from *kwep-✻ — “to boil; to smoke, steam; aroma; strong odour”
  2. derived from vapor — “exhalation; smoke; steam, vapour”
  3. derived from vapōrōsus — “full of steam”
  4. inherited from vaporous

Definitions

  1. Of or relating to vapour

    Of or relating to vapour; also, having the characteristics or consistency of vapour.

    • Hovv can darkneſſe be called a Maſſe? &c. No it cannot. Nor a thin vaporous matter neither.
    • For the great rock has screened the westering sun / That still on plains beyond streams vaporous gold / Among the branches; […]
    • The wind began to rise and soon the vapourous mist began to eddy and whirl in wild confusion.

  2. Breathing out or giving off vapour.

  3. Of a place

    Of a place: filled with vapour; foggy, misty.

    • O hatefull, vaporous, and foggy night, / Since thou art guilty of my cureleſſe crime: / Muſter thy miſts to meete the Eaſterne light, / Make vvar againſt proportion'd courſe of time.
    • Beneath is spread like a green sea / The waveless plain of Lombardy, / Bounded by the vaporous air, / Islanded by cities fair; […]
  4. ›+ 4 more definitions

    1. Of a thing

      Of a thing: covered or hidden by vapour, fog, or mist.

    2. Lacking depth or substance

      Lacking depth or substance; insubstantial, thoughtless, vague.

      • So vvhoſoeuer ſhall entertaine high and vapourous imaginations, in ſteede of a laborious and ſober inquiry of truth ſhall beget hopes and Beliefes of ſtrange and impoſſible ſhapes.
      • Now I recenter my immortal mind / In the deep sabbath of meek self-content; / Cleans'd from the vaporous passions that bedim / God's Image, sister of the Seraphim.
      • The boundless, overflowing, bursting gladness, / The vapourous exultation not to be confined!

    3. Of clothes or fabric

      Of clothes or fabric: thin and translucent; filmy, gauzy.

      • [A]irily-attired ladies were lounging upon the chairs in the gardens of the Tuileries; only the most fragile and vaporous bonnets were to be seen in the Bois de Boulogne; […]
      • She carried herself no less attentively than usual, and kept no less anxious an eye upon her vaporous skirts; she held her bouquet very tight, and counted over the flowers for the twentieth time.

    4. Feeling melancholy

      Feeling melancholy; experiencing the vapors.

The neighborhood

Derived

nonvaporous, vaporously, vaporousness

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for vaporous. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA