vaporous

English

WOTD – 16 November 2022

Etymology

From Middle French vapoureus, or from its etymon Late Latin vapōrus, vapōrōsus (“full of steam”) + English -ous (suffix denoting the presence of a quality in any degree, typically in abundance). Vapōrōsus is derived 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).[1] The English word is analysable as vapor, vapour +‎ -ous.

cognates

French vaporeux (“misty, vaporous; filmy, transparent”)
Italian vaporoso (“flimsy, gauzy; fluffy; vaporous”)
Portuguese vaporoso
Spanish vaporoso (“airy; vaporous”)

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈveɪpəɹəs/, /ˈveɪpɹəs/
Audio (Southern England) (file)
(General American) IPA^(key): /ˈveɪpəɹəs/
Hyphenation: va‧por‧ous

Adjective

vaporous (comparative more vaporous, superlative most vaporous)

Of or relating to vapour; also, having the characteristics or consistency of vapour.
Synonyms: (obsolete) halitous, (obsolete) halituous, vaporiform, vaporlike, vapourlike, (obsolete) vaporose, vapory, vapoury; see also Thesaurus:gaseous

Antonym: nonvaporous
- 1651, Alazonomastix Philalethes [pseudonym; Henry More], “Sect[ion] VII”, in The Second Lash of Alazonomastix; Conteining a Solid and Serious Reply to a Very Uncivill Answer to Certain Observations upon Anthroposophia Theomagica, and Anima Magica Abscondita, London: […] J[ames] Flesher, published 1655, OCLC 17371272, observation 24, page 234:
  Hovv can darkneſſe be called a Maſſe? &c. No it cannot. Nor a thin vaporous matter neither.
- 1868, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], “Book I”, in The Spanish Gypsy: A Poem, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, OCLC 3384101, page 50:
  For the great rock has screened the westering sun / That still on plains beyond streams vaporous gold / Among the branches; […]
- 1894, Ivan Dexter, “Talmud: A Strange Narrative of Central Australia. Founded on Natural Facts. Chapter XIV. A Mountain Tragedy.”, in Port Adelaide News and Lefevre’s Peninsula Advertiser, Adelaide, S.A.: Port Adelaide Newspaper and Printing Company, OCLC 223948401; republished as Talmud: A Strange Narrative of Central Australia (eBook no. 1600641.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, May 2016:
  The wind began to rise and soon the vapourous mist began to eddy and whirl in wild confusion.
Breathing out or giving off vapour.
Synonyms: (rare) vaporescent, (rare) vapourescent
Of a place: filled with vapour; foggy, misty.
Synonyms: fumid, (rare) vapored, (rare) vapoured, (rare) vaporiferous, vaporsome
- 1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto), London: […] Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, […], OCLC 236076664, signature F3, verso:
  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.
- 1603, Plutarch, “Of the Primitive or First Colde”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Philosophie, Commonlie Called, The Morals […], London: […] Arnold Hatfield, OCLC 1051546006, page 998:
  [W]e ſee that the very aire it ſelfe is never conglaciate nor frozen, nor hardened, conſidering that miſts, fogs and clouds are no congealations, but onely gatherings and thickenings of a moiſt and vapourous aire: for the true aire indeed vvhich hath no vapour at all and is altogether drie, admitteth no ſuch refrigeration as may alter it to that degree and heigth.
- 1818 October, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Lines Written among the Euganean Hills, October, 1818”, in Rosalind and Helen, a Modern Eclogue; with Other Poems, London: […] [C. H. Reynell] for C[harles] and J[ames] Ollier, […], published 1819, OCLC 1940490, page 73:
  Beneath is spread like a green sea / The waveless plain of Lombardy, / Bounded by the vaporous air, / Islanded by cities fair; […]
- 1852 February–March, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Feathertop; a Moralized Legend”, in Mosses from an Old Manse. […], volume I, new (2nd) edition, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, published 1854, OCLC 1061878660, page 267:
  [I]t applied itself lustily to the pipe and sent forth such abundant volleys of tobacco smoke that the small cottage kitchen became all vaporous.
Of a thing: covered or hidden by vapour, fog, or mist.
- 1818, John Keats, “Book II”, in Endymion: A Poetic Romance, London: […] [T. Miller] for Taylor and Hessey, […], OCLC 1467112, lines 16–21, page 54:
  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.
(figuratively)
1. Lacking depth or substance; insubstantial, thoughtless, vague.
  Synonyms: frothy, vain, vaporsome
  - 1605, Francis Bacon, “The Second Booke”, in The Tvvoo Bookes of Francis Bacon. Of the Proficience and Aduancement of Learning, Diuine and Humane, London: […] [Thomas Purfoot and Thomas Creede] for Henrie Tomes, […], OCLC 932932554, folio 32, verso:
    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.
  - 1796 December 24–26 (date written), S[amuel] T[aylor] Coleridge, “Ode on the Departing Year”, in Sibylline Leaves: A Collection of Poems, London: Rest Fenner, […], published 1817, OCLC 2880672, stanza IX, page 58:
    Now I recenter my immortal mind / In the deep sabbath of meek self-content; / Cleans'd from the vaporous passions that bedim / God's Image, sister of the Seraphim.
  - 1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Prometheus Unbound”, in Prometheus Unbound […], London: C[harles] and J[ames] Ollier […], OCLC 36924440, Act IV, scene i, page 139:
    The boundless, overflowing, bursting gladness, / The vapourous exultation not to be confined!
  - 1840, R[ichard] H[enry] D[ana], Jr., chapter XXVIII, in Two Years before the Mast. […] (Harper’s Family Library; no. CVI), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers […], OCLC 191240091, page 320:
    B****, the mouth-piece of the debating clubs, noisy, vaporous, and democratic; […]
  - 1848, Charles Kingsley, Junior, The Saint’s Tragedy; or, The True Story of Elizabeth of Hungary, […], London: John W[illiam] Parker, […], OCLC 457917682, Act V, scene ii, page 235:
    How! have I slept? Shame on my vaporous brain!
  - 1876, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XVI, in Daniel Deronda, volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, OCLC 775411, book II (Meeting Streams), page 321:
    [I]t was momentarily within his imagination that the provision for him might come in some way from his mother. But such vaporous conjecture passed away as quickly as it came.
2. Of clothes or fabric: thin and translucent; filmy, gauzy.
  - 1863, M[ary] E[lizabeth] Braddon, “Victor Bourdon Goes Over to the Enemy”, in Eleanor’s Victory. […], volume III, London: Tinsley Brothers, […], OCLC 457129983, page 235:
    [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; […]
  - 1881, Henry James, Jr., chapter XLIII, in The Portrait of a Lady, New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], OCLC 3561500, page 381:
    She carried herself no less attentively than usual, and kept no less anxious an eye upon her vaporous skirts; she held her bouquet very tight, and counted over the flowers for the twentieth time.