fog

Definition

A thick cloud that forms near the ground; the obscurity of such a cloud.

Etymology

Origin uncertain; but probably of North Germanic origin. Probably either a back-formation from foggy (“covered with tall grass; thick, marshy”), from the earlier-attested fog (“tall grass”) (see below), or from or related to Danish fog (“spray, shower, drift, storm”), related to Icelandic fok (“spray, any light thing tossed by the wind, snowdrift”), Icelandic fjúka (“to blow, drive”), from Proto-Germanic *feukaną (“to whisk, blow”), from Proto-Indo-European *pug- (“billow, bulge, drift”), from *pew-, *pow- (“to blow, drift, billow”), in which case related to German fauchen (“to hiss, spit, spray”).

Example Sentences

• "a bank of fog"
• "Thus the red damask curtains which now shut out the fog-laden, drizzling atmosphere of the Marylebone Road, had cost a mere song, and yet they might have been warranted to last another thirty years. A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor;[…]."
• "Wallis and Curtiz eventually agreed to shoot Howard Koch’s preferred ending, with distraught Ilse^([sic]), still in love with Rick, going off with Laszlo to America, and Rick and Louis going off together into the fog. (In Morocco? Fog? Never mind.)"