vaporous
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈveɪpəɹəs/
ipa: /ˈveɪpɹəs/
ipa: /ˈveɪpəɹəs/
Forms: form: more vaporous
form: most vaporous
form: vapourous
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.
Cognates
* French vaporeux (“misty, vaporous; filmy, transparent”)
* Italian vaporoso (“flimsy, gauzy; fluffy; vaporous”)
* Portuguese vaporoso
* Spanish vaporoso (“airy; vaporous”)
Senses: examples: text: Hovv can darkneſſe be called a Maſſe? &c. No it cannot. Nor a thin vaporous matter neither.
ref: 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:
text: For the great rock has screened the westering sun / That still on plains beyond streams vaporous gold / Among the branches; […]
ref: 1868, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], “Book I”, in The Spanish Gypsy: A Poem, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, page 50:
text: The wind began to rise and soon the vapourous mist began to eddy and whirl in wild confusion.
ref: 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:
synonyms: word: halitous
word: halituous
word: vaporiform
word: vaporlike
word: vapourlike
word: vaporose
word: vapory
word: vapoury
word: aeriform
word: aereous
word: aerial
word: airy
word: ethereal
word: gaseous
word: pneumatic
word: vaporlike
word: vaporous
word: wafty
antonyms: nonvaporous
glosses: Of or relating to vapour; also, having the characteristics or consistency of vapour.
synonyms: word: vaporescent
word: vapourescent
glosses: Breathing out or giving off vapour.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto), London: […] Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, […], →OCLC, signature F3, verso:
text: [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 ^([sic]).
ref: 1603, Plutarch, “Of the Primitive or First Colde”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Philosophie, Commonlie Called, The Morals […], London: […] Arnold Hatfield, →OCLC, page 998:
text: Beneath is spread like a green sea / The waveless plain of Lombardy, / Bounded by the vaporous air, / Islanded by cities fair; […]
ref: 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:
text: [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.
ref: 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:
synonyms: word: fumid
word: vapored
word: vapoured
word: vaporiferous
word: vaporsome
glosses: Of a place: filled with vapour; foggy, misty.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1818, John Keats, “Book II”, in Endymion: A Poetic Romance, London: […] T[homas] Miller, […] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, page 54, lines 16–21:
glosses: Of a thing: covered or hidden by vapour, fog, or mist.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 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:
text: 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.
ref: 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:
text: The boundless, overflowing, bursting gladness, / The vapourous exultation not to be confined!
ref: 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:
text: B****, the mouth-piece of the debating clubs, noisy, vaporous, and democratic; […]
ref: 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:
text: How! have I slept? Shame on my vaporous brain!
ref: 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:
text: [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.
ref: 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:
synonyms: frothy
vain
vaporsome
glosses: Lacking depth or substance; insubstantial, thoughtless, vague.
examples: text: [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; […]
ref: 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:
text: 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.
ref: 1881, Henry James, Jr., chapter XLIII, in The Portrait of a Lady, New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC, page 381:
glosses: Of clothes or fabric: thin and translucent; filmy, gauzy.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1979, Ernest Samuels, Bernard Berenson: The Making of a Connoisseur, page 228:
glosses: Feeling melancholy; experiencing the vapors.
Derived terms: nonvaporous
vaporously
vaporousness
Related terms: word: vapography
word: vaporability
word: vaporable
word: vaporarium
word: vaporary
word: vaporate
word: vaporation
word: vapored
word: vapoured
word: vaporer
word: vapourer
word: vaporescence
word: vaporescent
word: vapourescent
word: vaporgraph
word: vapourgraph
word: vaporiferous
word: vaporific
word: vaporiform
word: vaporimeter
word: vaporing
word: vapouring
word: vaporisable
word: vaporizable
word: vaporisation
word: vaporization
word: vaporised
word: vaporized
word: vapourised
word: vapourized
word: vaporiser
word: vaporizer
word: vaporise
word: vaporize
word: vapourise
word: vapourize
word: vaporish
word: vapourish
word: vaporless
word: vapourless
word: vaporlike
word: vapourlike
word: vaporograph
word: vaporography
word: vaporose
word: vaporosity
word: vapor
word: vapour
word: vaporware
word: vapourware
word: vapory
word: vapoury
word: nebulous