fuliginous
Americanadjective
-
sooty; smoky.
the fuliginous air hanging over an industrial city.
-
of the color of soot, as dark gray, dull brown, black, etc.
adjective
-
sooty or smoky
-
of the colour of soot; dull greyish-black or brown
Other Word Forms
- fuliginously adverb
- fuliginousness noun
Etymology
Origin of fuliginous
1565–75; < Latin fūlīginōsus full of soot, equivalent to fūlīgin- (stem of fūlīgō ) soot + -ōsus -ous
Explanation
Anything that's fuliginous is dirty and blackened, as if it had been rolled in soot. If you're thinking of the fuliginous chimney sweeps in Mary Poppins, you've got the right idea. The Latin root of fuliginous is fuligo, or "soot," and the word became popular in 16th-century London, when the sooty ash from coal fires could be found everywhere, including in the air itself. From the fuliginous sky in a smoggy town to the fuliginous cat playing in the fireplace, the word also came to figuratively mean "dark or obscure." You can even describe someone's dark sense of humor, pessimistic outlook on life, or bleak mood as fuliginous.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Internally this holds good; externally it discourages understanding about as effectively as the most fuliginous medieval cabal.
From Time Magazine Archive
Through the streets of London stirred a cold fuliginous fog.
From Time Magazine Archive
The commercial coagulation on Manhattan's western bank is no stranger than Cleveland's hideous, eastern waterfront, Cincinnati's and Pittsburgh's smoke-draggled riverbanks or Chicago's fuliginous south shore.
From Time Magazine Archive
At the top of his form Critic DeVoto suggested a geyser ejecting a column of live steam, accompanied by deep, sometimes rather incoherent rumblings, hisses, falling rocks, lava, fuliginous fumes.
From Time Magazine Archive
It might also be said that everything at dinner after that is fuliginous at best.
From "Odd One Out" by Nic Stone
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
