Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A warm dry wind coming off the lee slopes of a mountain range, especially off the northern slopes of the Alps.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A warm, dry wind which descends from the upper Alps into the valleys on the north side of the chain of the Alps, from Geneva to Salzburg.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A warm dry wind that often blows in the northern valleys of the Alps, due to the indraught of a storm center passing over Central Europe. The wind, heated by compression in its descent from the mountains, reaches the base, particularly in winter, dry and warm.
  • noun Any similar wind, as the chinook, in other parts of the world.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A warm dry wind blowing down the side of a mountain in northern and central Europe.
  • noun meteorology A similar wind in any mountainous area.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a warm dry wind that blows down the northern slopes of the Alps

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[German Föhn, from Middle High German fœnne, from Old High German phōno, from Vulgar Latin *faōnius, from Latin favōnius, the west wind, from favēre, to be favorable.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

German Föhn, from Vulgar Latin *faōnius, from Latin Favōnius ("Favonius"), a Roman wind god.

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Examples

  • The coming of Sinlaku triggered a rare meteorological event known as the foehn phenomenon, wherein warm, dry winds swept through Taiwan's Taitung County, Xinhua said.

    Latest News - UPI.com 2008

  • Climate: temperate and marine; cool, cloudy, wet winters and summers; occasional warm mountain (foehn) wind

    Germany 2008

  • Germanytemperate and marine; cool, cloudy, wet winters and summers; occasional warm mountain (foehn) wind

    Climate 2008

  • The presence of a strong foehn (catabatic wind) contributes to warming and drying the Tsangpo Valley.

    Yarlung Zambo arid steppe 2008

  • “Santa Ana” winds, or foehn winds, are hot winds … when one of them starts to blown, his assumption that wind will cool down the UHI gets blown out the window.

    Parker 2006: An Urban Myth? « Climate Audit 2007

  • #35 Steve Sadlov…As, where and how you build you harvest …extreme heatwaves…The foehn effects are enhanced by the inner and south

    Tucson's Amazing USHCN Station « Climate Audit 2007

  • Just let it dangle till the next foehn wind slings it into the forest.

    Absolute Friends Le Carre, John, 1931- 2003

  • Charlie knew the landmasses; he watched and felt the air, prepared for downdrafts and foehn clouds.

    There Is A Season Early, Margot 1999

  • Charlie knew the landmasses; he watched and felt the air, prepared for downdrafts and foehn clouds.

    There Is A Season Early, Margot 1999

  • Air mass flows down a mountain range, you get a foehn wind.

    Beowulf's Children Niven, Larry 1995

Comments

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  • A Swiss German word derived from Latin favonius, "west wind."

    November 21, 2007