Sirocco - Definitions from Dictionary.com

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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

si·roc·co

Audio Help [suh-rok-oh] Pronunciation Key

–noun, plural -cos.

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

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

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

Also, scirocco.

[Origin: 1610–20; < It, var. of scirocco < Ar sharq east

]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Sirocco

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

si·roc·co Audio Help (sə-rŏk'ō) Pronunciation Key
n. pl. si·roc·cos also sci·roc·cos

A hot humid south or southeast wind of southern Italy, Sicily, and the Mediterranean islands, originating in the Sahara Desert as a dry dusty wind but becoming moist as it passes over the Mediterranean.
A hot or warm southerly wind, especially one moving toward a low barometric pressure center.

[Italian, from Arabic šarq, east; see śrq in Semitic roots.]

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
sirocco

"hot wind blowing from the Libyan deserts," 1617, from It. 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).

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

sirocco
noun
a windstorm that lifts up clouds of dust or sand; "it was the kind of duster not experienced in years" [syn: dust storm]

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Sirocco

Si*roc"co\ (s[i^]*r[o^]k"k[-o]), n. In general, any hot dry wind of cyclonic origin, blowing from arid or heated regions, including the desert wind of Southern California, the harmattan of the west coasts of Africa, the hot winds of Kansas and Texas, the kamsin of Egypt, the leste of the Madeira Islands, and the leveche of Spain.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Sirocco

Sar"a*cen\, n. [L. Saracenus perhaps fr. Ar. sharqi, pl. sharqi[=i]n, Oriental, Eastern, fr. sharaqa to rise, said of the sun: cf. F. sarrasin. Cf. Sarcenet, Sarrasin, Sirocco.] Anciently, an Arab; later, a Mussulman; in the Middle Ages, the common term among Christians in Europe for a Mohammedan hostile to the crusaders.

Saracens' consound (Bot.), a kind of ragwort (Senecio Saracenicus), anciently used to heal wounds.

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