Earth & SkyGreek → English
Etesian
/ɪˈtiːʒən/adjective
Describing the dry north winds that blow across the Aegean every summer.
The Greek roots
ἔτος
étos
year
Literally: “yearly”
Follow a root:ἔτος1 word
The story of the word
The ἐτησίαι were simply the winds that came back every year, and they still do: hard, dry northerlies that scour the Aegean from May to September and are called the meltemi in Greek today. Ancient shipping planned around them, since they made the run south easy and the run home a slog. Herodotus reports a Greek theory that these winds dammed the Nile and caused its summer flood, and then dismisses it.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
In a sentence
The ferry was cancelled again; the etesian winds were up to force eight by noon.