simoom

From Arabic سَمُوم (samūm, “hot wind”), from سَمَّ (samma, “to poison”).

• (Received Pronunciation, US) enPR: sĭmo͞omʹ; IPA^(key): /sɪˈmuːm/

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• Rhymes: -uːm

simoom (plural simooms)

1. A hot, dry, suffocating, dust-laden wind of the desert, particularly of Arabia, Syria, and neighboring countries, generated by the extreme heat of the parched deserts or sandy plains.
   • 1892, James Yoxall, chapter 5, in The Lonely Pyramid:

     The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom. Whirling wreaths and columns of burning wind, rushed around and over them.

   • 1916, James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Macmillan Press Ltd, paperback, page 101:

     Stephen's heart had withered up like a flower of the desert that feels the simoom coming from afar.