vaporous
English
WOTD – 16 November 2022
Etymology
From Middle French vapoureus, or from its etymon Late Latin vapōrus, vapōrōsus (“full of steam”) + English -ous (suffix denoting the presence of a quality in any degree, typically in abundance). Vapōrōsus is derived 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).[1] The English word is analysable as vapor, vapour + -ous.
cognates
- French vaporeux (“misty, vaporous; filmy, transparent”)
- Italian vaporoso (“flimsy, gauzy; fluffy; vaporous”)
- Portuguese vaporoso
- Spanish vaporoso (“airy; vaporous”)
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈveɪpəɹəs/, /ˈveɪpɹəs/
Audio (Southern England) (file) - (General American) IPA(key): /ˈveɪpəɹəs/
- Hyphenation: va‧por‧ous
Adjective
vaporous (comparative more vaporous, superlative most vaporous)
- Of or relating to vapour; also, having the characteristics or consistency of vapour.
- Synonyms: (obsolete) halitous, (obsolete) halituous, vaporiform, vaporlike, vapourlike, (obsolete) vaporose, vapory, vapoury; see also Thesaurus:gaseous
- Antonym: nonvaporous
- 1651, Alazonomastix Philalethes [pseudonym; Henry More], “Sect[ion] VII”, in The Second Lash of Alazonomastix; Conteining a Solid and Serious Reply to a Very Uncivill Answer to Certain Observations upon Anthroposophia Theomagica, and Anima Magica Abscondita, London: […] J[ames] Flesher, published 1655, OCLC 17371272, observation 24, page 234:
- Hovv can darkneſſe be called a Maſſe? &c. No it cannot. Nor a thin vaporous matter neither.
- 1868, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], “Book I”, in The Spanish Gypsy: A Poem, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, OCLC 3384101, page 50:
- For the great rock has screened the westering sun / That still on plains beyond streams vaporous gold / Among the branches; […]
- 1894, Ivan Dexter, “Talmud: A Strange Narrative of Central Australia. Founded on Natural Facts. Chapter XIV. A Mountain Tragedy.”, in Port Adelaide News and Lefevre’s Peninsula Advertiser, Adelaide, S.A.: Port Adelaide Newspaper and Printing Company, OCLC 223948401; republished as Talmud: A Strange Narrative of Central Australia (eBook no. 1600641.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, May 2016:
- The wind began to rise and soon the vapourous mist began to eddy and whirl in wild confusion.
- Breathing out or giving off vapour.
- Synonyms: (rare) vaporescent, (rare) vapourescent
- Of a place: filled with vapour; foggy, misty.
- Synonyms: fumid, (rare) vapored, (rare) vapoured, (rare) vaporiferous, vaporsome
- 1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto), London: […] Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, […], OCLC 236076664, signature F3, verso:
- 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.
- 1603, Plutarch, “Of the Primitive or First Colde”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Philosophie, Commonlie Called, The Morals […], London: […] Arnold Hatfield, OCLC 1051546006, page 998:
- [W]e ſee that the very aire it ſelfe is never conglaciate nor frozen, nor hardened, conſidering that miſts, fogs and clouds are no congealations, but onely gatherings and thickenings of a moiſt and vapourous aire: for the true aire indeed vvhich hath no vapour at all and is altogether drie, admitteth no ſuch refrigeration as may alter it to that degree and heigth.
- 1818 October, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Lines Written among the Euganean Hills, October, 1818”, in Rosalind and Helen, a Modern Eclogue; with Other Poems, London: […] [C. H. Reynell] for C[harles] and J[ames] Ollier, […], published 1819, OCLC 1940490, page 73:
- Beneath is spread like a green sea / The waveless plain of Lombardy, / Bounded by the vaporous air, / Islanded by cities fair; […]
- 1852 February–March, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Feathertop; a Moralized Legend”, in Mosses from an Old Manse. […], volume I, new (2nd) edition, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, published 1854, OCLC 1061878660, page 267:
- [I]t applied itself lustily to the pipe and sent forth such abundant volleys of tobacco smoke that the small cottage kitchen became all vaporous.
- Of a thing: covered or hidden by vapour, fog, or mist.
- 1818, John Keats, “Book II”, in Endymion: A Poetic Romance, London: […] [T. Miller] for Taylor and Hessey, […], OCLC 1467112, lines 16–21, page 54:
- Wide sea, that one continuous murmur breeds / Along the pebbled shore of memory! / Many old rotten-timber'd boats there be / Upon thy vaporous bosom, magnified / To goodly vessels; many a sail of pride, / And golden keel'd, is left unlaunch'd and dry.
-
- (figuratively)
- Lacking depth or substance; insubstantial, thoughtless, vague.
- Synonyms: frothy, vain, vaporsome
- 1605, Francis Bacon, “The Second Booke”, in The Tvvoo Bookes of Francis Bacon. Of the Proficience and Aduancement of Learning, Diuine and Humane, London: […] [Thomas Purfoot and Thomas Creede] for Henrie Tomes, […], OCLC 932932554, folio 32, verso:
- 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.
- 1796 December 24–26 (date written), S[amuel] T[aylor] Coleridge, “Ode on the Departing Year”, in Sibylline Leaves: A Collection of Poems, London: Rest Fenner, […], published 1817, OCLC 2880672, stanza IX, page 58:
- 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.
- 1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Prometheus Unbound”, in Prometheus Unbound […], London: C[harles] and J[ames] Ollier […], OCLC 36924440, Act IV, scene i, page 139:
- The boundless, overflowing, bursting gladness, / The vapourous exultation not to be confined!
- 1840, R[ichard] H[enry] D[ana], Jr., chapter XXVIII, in Two Years before the Mast. […] (Harper’s Family Library; no. CVI), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers […], OCLC 191240091, page 320:
- B****, the mouth-piece of the debating clubs, noisy, vaporous, and democratic; […]
- 1848, Charles Kingsley, Junior, The Saint’s Tragedy; or, The True Story of Elizabeth of Hungary, […], London: John W[illiam] Parker, […], OCLC 457917682, Act V, scene ii, page 235:
- How! have I slept? Shame on my vaporous brain!
- 1876, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XVI, in Daniel Deronda, volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, OCLC 775411, book II (Meeting Streams), page 321:
- [I]t was momentarily within his imagination that the provision for him might come in some way from his mother. But such vaporous conjecture passed away as quickly as it came.
- Of clothes or fabric: thin and translucent; filmy, gauzy.
- 1863, M[ary] E[lizabeth] Braddon, “Victor Bourdon Goes Over to the Enemy”, in Eleanor’s Victory. […], volume III, London: Tinsley Brothers, […], OCLC 457129983, page 235:
- [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; […]
- 1881, Henry James, Jr., chapter XLIII, in The Portrait of a Lady, New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], OCLC 3561500, page 381:
- 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.
-
- Lacking depth or substance; insubstantial, thoughtless, vague.
Alternative forms
- vapourous
Derived terms
- nonvaporous
- vaporously
- vaporousness
Related terms
- vapography
- vaporability
- vaporable
- vaporarium
- vaporary (obsolete)
- vaporate (obsolete)
- vaporation (obsolete)
- vapored, vapoured (adjective)
- vaporer, vapourer
- vaporescence (rare)
- vaporescent, vapourescent (rare)
- vaporgraph, vapourgraph
- vaporiferous (rare)
- vaporific
- vaporiform
- vaporimeter
- vaporing, vapouring (adjective, noun)
- vaporisable, vaporizable
- vaporisation, vaporization
- vaporised, vaporized, vapourised, vapourized
- vaporiser, vaporizer
- vaporise, vaporize, vapourise, vapourize
- vaporish, vapourish
- vaporless, vapourless
- vaporlike, vapourlike
- vaporograph
- vaporography
- vaporose (obsolete)
- vaporosity (rare)
- vapor, vapour
- vaporware, vapourware
- vapory, vapoury
Translations
of or relating to vapour; having the characteristics or consistency of vapour
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breathing out or giving off vapour
|
of a place: filled with vapour — see foggy, misty
lacking depth or substance — see insubstantial
of clothes or fabric: thin and translucent — see filmy, gauzy
See also
- Thesaurus:nebulous
References
- Compare “vaporous, adj.”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2021; “vaporous, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
Further reading
- vapor on Wikipedia.Wikipedia