sirocco

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a hot, often dusty wind that blows from the Sahara across the Mediterranean into southern Europe

   A fierce sirocco carried heat and fine desert dust across the island.

2. 2
   noun

   by extension: any hot, oppressive southerly wind or blast of air

   A dry sirocco of air rushed from the open furnace door.

Borrowed in the seventeenth century through French from Italian scirocco, ultimately from an Arabic term for the east or east wind. The name reflects the wind's perceived direction in parts of the Mediterranean, although the sirocco originates over North Africa and changes character as it crosses the sea.

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