miasma
[mahy-az-muh, mee-]
- noxious exhalations from putrescent organic matter; poisonous effluvia or germs polluting the atmosphere.
- a dangerous, foreboding, or deathlike influence or atmosphere.
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Origin of miasma
1655–65; < New Latin < Greek míasma stain, pollution, akin to miaínein to pollute, stain
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for miasmic
Historical Examples
You have spoken of miasmic mists that hung below the level of the tree-tops.
The Thing from the LakeEleanor M. Ingram
The mists arising from earth are only miasmic vapours after all!
Station AmusementsLady Barker
And over all, rising from pools and bare ground and jungle alike, was a thin, miasmic mist.
But on account of the low, mean lives so many are living, they never rise above the miasmic contagion of the sin and self level.
Life in a Thousand WorldsWilliam Shuler Harris
Just beyond Long Island a low stratum of miasmic gray was the only shred of the usual fog to be seen on the whole horizon.
The Harbor of DoubtFrank Williams
miasma
- an unwholesome or oppressive atmosphere
- pollution in the atmosphere, esp noxious vapours from decomposing organic matter
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Word Origin
C17: New Latin, from Greek: defilement, from miainein to defile
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
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Word Origin and History for miasmic
miasma
n.
1660s, from Modern Latin miasma "noxious vapors," from Greek miasma (genitive miasmatos) "stain, pollution, defilement, taint of guilt," from stem of miainein "to pollute," from possible PIE root *mai- "to stain, soil, defile" (cf. Old English mal "stain, mark," see mole (n.1)). Earlier form was miasm (1640s), from French miasme. Related: Miasmatic; miasmal.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper