GC: n
S: Met Office – https://bit.ly/2WZx2SI (last access: 10 April 2019); NatGeo – https://bit.ly/2OYUFIg (last access: 10 April 2019).
N: 1. “weather condition consisting of a cloud resting upon the ground, fog,” also “precipitation consisting of fine droplets of water, much smaller than rain,” Old English mist (earliest in compounds, such as misthleoðu “misty cliffs,” wælmist “mist of death”), from Proto-Germanic *mikhstaz (source also of Middle Low German mist, Dutch mist, Icelandic mistur, Norwegian and Swedish mist), perhaps from PIE *meigh- “to urinate.” Greek omikhle “fog;” Old Church Slavonic migla “fog;” Sanskrit mih- “fog, mist,” megha “cloud” sometimes are said to be cognates in this secondary sense, but Beekes finds these rather more likely to be from a separate IE root meaning “fog.”
Sometimes distinguished from fog, either as being less opaque or as consisting of drops large enough to have a perceptible downward motion. (Oxford English Dictionary)
Also in Old English in reference to dimness of the eyes or eyesight, either by illness or tears, and in a figurative sense of “something that darkens and obscures mental vision.” Meaning “haze of dust in the air producing obscurity of things seen at a distance” is by 1785.
2. Suspension in the air of microscopic water droplets or wet hygroscopic particles which reduce the visibility at the Earth’s surface.
3. Mist, regardless of the individual particle sizes, is a dispersion aerosol if it forms by the atomizing of a liquid in air, and a condensation aerosol if it forms by the condensation of a liquid’s vapor (as in the formation of fog).
4. It produces, generally, a thin, greyish veil over the landscape; it reduces visibility to a lesser extent than fog; the relative humidity with mist is often less than 95.
5. In popular American usage, the term “mist” is also used as a synonym of “drizzle”.
6. Collocations:
- Adj. dense, heavy, thick; faint, fine, light, slight, thin; dark, grey, red, white; dawn, evening, morning; autumn; sea.
- Verb + mist: be cloaked in, be covered in, be shrouded in, be wreathed in; disappear into, vanish in/into; emerge from, loom out of; break through, shine through; peer into/through; be lost in (figurative).
- Mist + verb: hang, hover, lie; come down, descend; clear, lift; drift, float, rise, roll, swirl; cling to sth; fill sth; cover sth, hide sth, obscure sth, shroud sth.
- Prep. in/into the mist; through the mist.
- Phrases: a curtain/veil of mist.
7. Cultural Interrelation: We can mention the book Of Bees and Mist (2009) by Erick Setiawan.
S: 1. OED – https://bit.ly/2G7MTYR (last access: 10 April 2019). 2. METEOTERM – International Meteorological Vocabulary, WMO – No. 182 (last access: 10 April 2019). 3 to 5. TERMIUM PLUS – https://bit.ly/2UaWRNQ (last access: 10 April 2019). 6. OCD – https://bit.ly/2VChHqT (last access: 10 April 2019). 7. Goodreads.com – https://bit.ly/2InPT64 (last access: 10 April 2019).
SYN: light fog
S: GDT – https://bit.ly/2D5BMPi (last access: 10 April 2019)
