sirocco

[suh-rok-oh]

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noun, plural si·roc·cos.

a hot, dry, dustladen wind blowing from northern Africa and affecting parts of southern Europe.

a warm, sultry south or southeast wind accompanied by rain, occurring in the same regions.

any hot, oppressive wind, especially one in the warm sector of a cyclone.

Also scirocco.

Origin of sirocco

1610–20; < Italian, variant of scirocco < Arabic sharq east

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for sirocco

sandstorm, devil, duster, harmattan, khamsin, samiel, shaitan, simoom

Examples from the Web for sirocco

Historical Examples of sirocco

For the hand he held was shaking like some slender-stalked lily in the clutch of the sirocco.
Within the Law
Marvin Dana
Tramontana and sirocco alternate, and each is more unendurable than the other.
Italy, the Magic Land
Lilian Whiting
Kalliope, faithful even amid the torment of the sirocco, followed her.
The Island Mystery
George A. Birmingham
He shivered; then a sirocco of fire followed the void of the wind.
The Dragon Painter
Mary McNeil Fenollosa
The deep melancholy poured into him by sirocco caused him to do so now.
The Call of the Blood
Robert Smythe Hichens

British Dictionary definitions for sirocco

sirocco

noun plural -cos

a hot oppressive and often dusty wind usually occurring in spring, beginning in N Africa and reaching S Europe

any hot southerly wind, esp one moving to a low pressure centre

Word Origin for sirocco

C17: from Italian, from Arabic sharq east wind

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for sirocco

"hot wind blowing from the Libyan deserts," 1610s, from Italian sirocco, from vulgar Arabic shoruq "the east wind," from Arabic sharqi "eastern, east wind," from sharq "east," from sharaqa "to rise" (in reference to the sun).