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Wednesday 11 July 2012

Entry: effluvia (n.)

In context: "...the toxic effluvia choking our highways and littering our byways and grungeing up our sunsets and cruddying those harbors..."

Definition: †1. A flowing out, an issuing forth; a process or manner of issuing forth. Obs.

2. Chiefly applied to the (real or supposed) outflow of material particles too subtle to be perceived by touch or sight; concr. a stream of such outflowing particles.

 b. A stream of minute particles, formerly supposed to be emitted by a magnet, electrified body, or other attracting or repelling agent, and to be the means by which it produces its effects. Chiefly pl. (Now hist.; but it probably survived the theory which it strictly implies.) Also fig.



Other:

SNOOT score: 1
 
Page: 383

Source: Oxford English Dictionary   


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