simoom
nounUK, US /sɪˈmuːm/
Etymology From Arabic سَمُوم (samūm, “hot wind”), from سَمَّ (samma, “to poison”).
1
A hot, dry, suffocating, dust-laden wind of the desert, particularly of Arabia, Syria, and neighboring countries, generated by the extreme heat of the parched deserts or sandy plains.
- The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom. Whirling wreaths and columns of burning wind, rushed around and over them.1892, James Yoxall, chapter 5, in The Lonely Pyramid:
- Stephen's heart had withered up like a flower of the desert that feels the simoom coming from afar.1916, James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Macmillan Press Ltd, paperback, page 101: