Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A noxious atmosphere or influence.
- noun A poisonous atmosphere formerly thought to rise from swamps and putrid matter and cause disease.
- noun A thick vaporous atmosphere or emanation.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The emanations or effluvia arising from the ground and floating in the atmosphere, considered to be infectious or otherwise injurious to health; noxious emanations; malaria. Also called
aërial poison .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Infectious particles or germs floating in the air; air made noxious by the presence of such particles or germs; noxious effluvia; malaria.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
noxious atmosphere or influence. - noun A noxious atmosphere or
emanation once thought to originate fromswamps and waste to causedisease .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun unhealthy vapors rising from the ground or other sources
- noun an unwholesome atmosphere
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Again, exposition; but a key thing to consider: the Greek concept of miasma is at play here.
More on Prologues Hal Duncan 2009
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Again, exposition; but a key thing to consider: the Greek concept of miasma is at play here.
Archive 2009-05-01 Hal Duncan 2009
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I find the best way to address this miasma is with a high-end programmable universal remote.
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Micael Ewans, The Everyman Library, 1996), miasma is defined as: "Pollution; the word embraces both literal dirt and what we would call psychic pollution incurred by breaches of taboo, e.e. bloodshed."
The Stain of Sin Hal Duncan 2006
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Micael Ewans, The Everyman Library, 1996), miasma is defined as: "Pollution; the word embraces both literal dirt and what we would call psychic pollution incurred by breaches of taboo, e.e. bloodshed."
Archive 2006-02-01 Hal Duncan 2006
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It is impossible to have such an awful sewer of iniquity sending up its miasma, which is wafted by the winds north, south, east, and west, without the whole land being affected by it.
The Wedding Ring A Series of Discourses for Husbands and Wives and Those Contemplating Matrimony 1867
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In areas where there are monsters milling about, a dark vortex -- known as the miasma stream -- needs to be sealed to prevent more monsters from appearing.
GameSpot's News, Screenshots, Movies, Reviews, Previews, Downloads, and Features 2009
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In areas where there are monsters milling about, a dark vortex -- known as the miasma stream -- needs to be sealed to prevent more monsters from appearing.
GameSpot's News, Screenshots, Movies, Reviews, Previews, Downloads, and Features 2009
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In areas where there are monsters milling about, a dark vortex -- known as the miasma stream -- needs to be sealed to prevent more monsters from appearing.
GameSpot's News, Screenshots, Movies, Reviews, Previews, Downloads, and Features 2009
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Actually I think there is scope here for investigating nomology as a non-scientific sense of possibility, investigating the way beliefs in Natural, Social or Divine order might also have functioned (and might still do) to construct "laws of reality" -- looking at the ancient concept of "miasma" as a breaching of those laws, for example, and a breaching that is integral to the narratives of Greek Tragedy.
A Follow Up Hal Duncan 2008
seanahan commented on the word miasma
The plural is listed as mismata.
July 29, 2007
misterpolly commented on the word miasma
"It's miasma," he said breathlessly.
January 14, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word miasma
I never see this word without thinking "fetid" in front of it.
July 16, 2008
mialuthien commented on the word miasma
I object to mia part of it. No syllable of mine should ever be constrained to be a constituent part of such an ugly-smelling word, ugh. Mia smells like roses.
July 17, 2008
dontcry commented on the word miasma
"Seamus, why are ya weezin'?"
"Ach, it's miasma."
July 17, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word miasma
HA!!
July 17, 2008
reesetee commented on the word miasma
That's what I always think when I see this word!
July 22, 2008
yarb commented on the word miasma
...endangered by serpents, savages, tigers, poisonous miasmas, with all the other common perils incident to wandering in the heart of unknown regions.
- Melville, Moby-Dick, ch. 45
July 25, 2008
renumeratedfrog commented on the word miasma
For some reason, this word reminds of smegma. :P
August 24, 2008
hernesheir commented on the word miasma
Myasthma
September 3, 2009
kingparton commented on the word miasma
Labor hides itself in every mode and form... it keeps the cow out of the garden, the rain out of the library, the miasma out of the town.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Perpetual Forces"
July 24, 2011
Arthurpod commented on the word miasma
"He had an unexpected sense that this Land might offer him some spell with which he could conjure away his impotence, some rebirth to which he could cling even after he regained consciousness, after the Land and all its insane implications faded into the miasma of half-remembered dreams."
Lord Foul's Bane
July 29, 2012