harmattan

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a dry, dusty northeasterly wind that blows from the Sahara across West Africa, chiefly during the cooler months

   The harmattan covered the city in fine dust and reduced visibility at the airport.

Recorded in English in the seventeenth century from a West African source, probably Twi haramata. European sailors and traders adopted the regional name for the dry, dust-bearing wind that reaches the Gulf of Guinea from the Sahara.

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