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St. Elmo's fire

[el-mohz]

noun

corona discharge.

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Origin of St. Elmo's fire

named after St. Elmo (died a.d. 303), patron saint of sailors
Also called St. Elmo's light, St. Ulmo's fire, St. Ulmo's light.

Saint Elmo's fire

[el-mohz]

noun

St. Elmo's fire.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
British Dictionary definitions for st. elmo's fire

Saint Elmo's fire

noun usually abbreviated to: St Elmo's fire

(not in technical usage) a luminous region that sometimes appears around church spires, the masts of ships, etc. It is a corona discharge in the air caused by atmospheric electricityAlso called: corposant

Word Origin for Saint Elmo's fire

C16: so called because it was associated with Saint Elmo (a corruption, via Sant'Ermo, of Saint Erasmus, died 303) the patron saint of Mediterranean sailors
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
Science definitions for st. elmo's fire

Saint Elmo's fire

[sānt ĕl′mōz]

A visible and sometimes audible electric discharge projecting from a pointed object, such as the mast of a ship or the wing of an airplane, during an electrical storm. First identified as an electrical phenomenon by Benjamin Franklin in 1749, St. Elmo's fire is a bluish-white plasma caused by the release of electrons in a strong electric field (200 or more volts per cm); the electrons have enough energy to ionize atoms in the air and cause them to glow. The phenomenon appears near pointed objects because electrical fields generated by charged surfaces are strongest where curves are sharpest. It is named after St. Elmo, the patron saint of mariners, as the phenomenon was often observed by sailors during thunderstorms at sea. See also lightning rod.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.