simoom

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

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

simoom (plural simooms)

1. A hot, dry, suffocating, dust-laden wind of the desert, particularity 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, p.101)

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