# vaporous
## English
### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈveɪpəɹəs/, /ˈveɪpɹəs/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* (General American) IPA: /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, 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, 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; 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, 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, 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, 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. […], new (2nd) edition, volume I, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, published 1854, →OCLC, 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[homas] Miller, […] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, page 54, lines 16–21: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)
** Lacking depth or substance; insubstantial, thoughtless, vague.
    Synonyms: frothy, vain, vaporsome
*** 1605, Francis Bacon, “The Second Booke”, in The Twoo Bookes of Francis Bacon. Of the Proficience and Aduancement of Learning, Diuine and Humane, London: […] [Thomas Purfoot and Thomas Creede] for Henrie Tomes, […], →OCLC, 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, 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.
*** 1818–1819 (date written), Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Prometheus Unbound”, in Prometheus Unbound […], London: C[harles] and J[ames] Ollier […], published 1820, →OCLC, 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, 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, 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, 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.
** 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, 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, 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.
* Feeling melancholy; experiencing the vapors.
** 1979, Ernest Samuels, Bernard Berenson: The Making of a Connoisseur, page 228: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.

#### Alternative forms

* vapourous

#### Derived terms

* nonvaporous
* vaporously
* vaporousness

#### Related terms

* vapography
* vaporability
* vaporable
* vaporarium
* vaporary (obsolete)
* vaporate (obsolete)
* vaporation (obsolete)
* vapored, vapoured (adjective)
* vaporer, vapourer
* vaporescence (rare)
* vaporescent, vapourescent (rare)
* vaporgraph, vapourgraph
* vaporiferous (rare)
* vaporific
* vaporiform
* vaporimeter
* vaporing, vapouring (adjective, noun)
* vaporisable, vaporizable
* vaporisation, vaporization
* vaporised, vaporized, vapourised, vapourized
* vaporiser, vaporizer
* vaporise, vaporize, vapourise, vapourize
* vaporish, vapourish
* vaporless, vapourless
* vaporlike, vapourlike
* vaporograph
* vaporography
* vaporose (obsolete)
* vaporosity (rare)
* vapor, vapour
* vaporware, vapourware
* vapory, vapoury

#### See also

* Thesaurus:nebulous

### References

* ↑ Compare “vaporous, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2021; “vaporous, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

### Further reading

* vapor on Wikipedia.Wikipedia