vaporous
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vaporous
- /ˈveɪpəɹəs/ UK
- /ˈveɪpɹəs/ UK
- /ˈveɪpəɹəs/ US
Where it comes from
From Middle English vaporous, from Late Latin vapōrōsus (“full of steam”), 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). The English word is analysable as vapour + -ous. Possibly a doublet of hope.
Cognates
* French vaporeux (“misty, vaporous; filmy, transparent”)
* Italian vaporoso (“flimsy, gauzy; fluffy; vaporous”)
* Portuguese vaporoso
* Spanish vaporoso (“airy; vaporous”)
adjective more vaporous · most vaporous · vapourous
- Of or relating to vapour; also, having the characteristics or consistency of vapour. Hovv can darkneſſe be called a Maſſe? &c. No it cannot. Nor a thin vaporous matter neither.
- Breathing out or giving off vapour.
- Of a place: filled with vapour; foggy, misty. 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.
- Of a thing: covered or hidden by vapour, fog, or mist. 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.
- Lacking depth or substance; insubstantial, thoughtless, vague. 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.
- Of clothes or fabric: thin and translucent; filmy, gauzy. [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; […]
- Feeling melancholy; experiencing the vapors. The task at first daunted him, and he wailed to Mary that he could not write about the Florentines because he no longer enjoyed them as a school. Again Mary rescued him from his vaporous mood, and the two of them vigorously plunged into the new work.
