Definitions
Wiktionary
- n. alternative spelling of simoom.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a violent hot sand-laden wind on the deserts of Arabia and North Africa
Examples
“I kept my eyes fixed on the window, but the wolf drew his head back, and a whole myriad of little specks seems to come blowing in through the broken window, and wheeling and circling round like the pillar of dust that travellers describe when there is a simoon in the desert.”
“It is of old a native of the East, sister of the tornado, the earthquake, and the simoon.”
“We will arrive in June, after the simoon, a suffocating wind that blows across the desert.”
“What is celebrated is the first of the hot simoon winds which last fifty days, and apparently the day for their commencement is most accurately gauged.”
“As I wuz asayin 'along we went like fury, ther simoon chasing arter us.”
Jack Wright and His Electric Stage; or, Leagued Against the James Boys
“Public and private opinion wilted before the simoon of calamitous report.”
“The simoon of shot and shell was over, and men and women and children crawled from their caves into the light of day.”
“Grace found herself wondering if the Arabian simoon, of which she had read, could possibly be deadlier.”
Grace Harlowe's Overland Riders on the Great American Desert
“This matter of sand falling seems to suggest conventional explanation enough, or that a simoon, heavily charged with terrestrial sand, had obscured the sun, but Mr. Murray, who says that he had had experience with simoons, gives his opinion that "it cannot have been a simoon.”
“To poverty dire as that from which she had fled, except that it was unaccompanied by the horror of simoon and blizzard, of hot winds and cold.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘simoon’.
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The Aubrey/Maturin List I'm Gonna Mak...
I'm wading through Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels one by one, and someday, I'll wade through them again and list all the words I learned while reading them.
Edit: I started ma...studdingsail, carronade, mumchance, grumlin-futtocks, crosscat-harpings, holystone, sennit, orlop, orchitis, negus, kevel, altumal and 1112 more...
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-oons (once of more than one syllable)
Originally this list was to contain multisyllabic words that end in "oon," but as you can see from the comments, all hell broke loose.
doubloon, poltroon, spittoon, patroon, dragoon, bassoon, platoon, typhoon, rangoon, maroon, pontoon, monsoon and 96 more...
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When I'm Feeling Windy
wiiiiiiiind
sirocco, zephyr, fiat, tramontana, typhoon, cyclone, hurricane, haboob, khamsin, aajej, africo, alm and 125 more...
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Words of the Day
glabella, chirotony, nook-shotten, crapehanger, filemot, swirlie, egosurf, lexiphanicism, Ruritanian, stichometry, chrononaut, faldstool and 2022 more...
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DaraLinette's list
sempiternal, iridule, cathexis, nictitate, stillicide, ampoule, mimesis, simulacrum, selenography, orbicle, lanceolate, lychnobite and 7 more...
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e-less list
Choice words from Adair's translation of La Disparition
confocal, quiddity, burin, sororal, caparison, lancinating, simoon, fustian, turbot, hirudination, turbid, doss and 31 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for simoon.
jaime_d "a simoon in a long Finnish corridor. . ." Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition Aug 11, 2010
chained_bear It does. And it sounds hotter too. Feb 20, 2008
yarb I'm sure it's a variant rather than a mis-spelling. I do prefer simoom, though - sounds sandier. Feb 19, 2008
chained_bear Interestingly--though I was called away in mid-comment--this word is definitely simoon in the text I cited. I looked, however, in the O'Brian lexicon (when I was called away because my dog had done something vile, for only the fifth time that day), and in that book, it reads simoom. So yeah. I guess it's the same. I don't know if it counts as a misspelling or not, though--it's in print, and it was reprinted a number of times (not facsimile editions), and as with many foreign words, it's possible that it's spelled more than one way. Feb 19, 2008
reesetee WeirdNet seems to think so. :-) (Apologies, bilby--I'd forgotten that you also have a "wind" list.) Feb 19, 2008
yarb Is this the same as the simoom? Feb 19, 2008
reesetee Another word for sionnach's winds of the world. :-) Feb 19, 2008
chained_bear "'Doctor,' he said, as Stephen and Martin came aboard, having handed up box after box of coral and shells, and as the hawser crept out from the Niobe's bows, carried by the long-boat through the crowd of Arab dhows and djerms, 'we are half-promised an Egyptian wind.'
"'Would that be the same as the dread simoon?'
"'I dare say,' said Jack. 'I have heard it is most uncommon hot, even for these parts. But the great point is that it is westerly, and even a little north of westerly, and so long as it comes abaft the beam, it may blow as hot as it pleases.'"
--Patrick O'Brian, Treason's Harbour, 175 Feb 19, 2008