pea-souper

Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square during the Great Smog of London, which blanketed London in a severe pea-souper (sense 1) from 5 to 9 December 1952.

From pea soup +‎ -er (suffix meaning ‘person or thing connected with’);[1] sense 1 (“dense, yellowish fog”) is from the appearance of the fog, while sense 2 (“French-Canadian person”) may be from the prevalence of pea soup in French cuisine: compare pea soup (“(slang, derogatory) French person”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpiːˌsuːpə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpiˌsupɚ/

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• Hyphenation: pea-soup‧er

pea-souper (plural pea-soupers)

1. (Britain, Canada, informal) A dense, yellowish fog, often mixed with smoke; a pea-soup fog, a smog.

   A man bumped into a lamp post during a pea-souper; he immediately apologised to it, not realising what it was.

   I can hear the bell on the buoy, but I can’t see anything in this pea-souper.

   • 2004, Andrea Levy, Small Island, London: Review, Chapter Thirty-five, p. 346,

     The dust surrounded us like a London pea-souper.

2. (Canada, slang, derogatory) A French-Canadian person, especially a Francophone from the province of Québec.

   Those pea-soupers are the worst drivers on the road!

• peasouper, pea souper

• pea soup fog on Wikipedia.Wikipedia