As an unrepentant logophile (lover of words), I’ve assembled a list of unusual, obscure, or simply charming-to-me words. Ludic is defined as “playful, in an aimless way,” and that’s my plan for approaching this a-to-z challenge—keeping my feet on the joy trail and meandering wherever the daily word takes me.
B is for…
brume – (n) fog or mist. Pronunciation: broom. Earliest documented use: 1500
While I live in an area that doesn’t often get fog, when it does arrive, it’s a treat. I love being out in it, the familiar shrouded and suddenly mysterious, everything seemingly muffled and obscured.
Although there are several types of fog, a general definition is vapor condensed to fine particles of water or ice suspended in the lower atmosphere that differs from cloud only in being near the ground.
When I first stumbled onto the word brume, I made my way to a book by Laura Pashby entitled Chasing Fog: Finding Enchantment in a Cloud. Pashby calls herself a fog chaser, and the book is filled with interesting observations and history and includes a number of her photographs. When she described fog “like a lid on a jar of cloud” I knew I could never think of it in any other way.
Pashby also mentions the folklore of travelers on the moors of Dartmoor being caught in sudden, inexplicable, disorienting fog. The source of the fog is said to be pixies weaving a mischievous spell, and to be caught in it is said to be “pixie-led.” How I love that!
It’s no secret I’m utterly enchanted by clouds. My heart loves them fiercely, and yet it’s hard to wrap my mind around them. That’s the beauty of the ephemeral for me, I suppose. Science can explain particular types of clouds, but I will always think of them as some peculiar shape-shifting tribe of ethereal magic. For me, clouds can be such a helpful reminder of how energy moves, how things shift, how not to hold on so tightly, and how powerful it can be to dance lightly.
I enjoy thinking of clouds existing in cloudland, and in fact, cloudland is another obscure word defined as 1) the sky, 2) dreamland, and 3) a region of unreality and imagination. It delights me to contemplate dreaming occurring in cloudland, and I prefer to think the definition includes literal night-time dreaming. I certainly know the laws of physics behave quite differently for me in dreamland, and I’ll happily assign that to the fact I’m visiting cloudland. Obviously, things are much different there.
But back to the waking world, in many locations, fog is more of a seasonal visitor than an anytime guest. I’m reminded that both the ancient Chinese and Japanese cultures were very nuanced in their observations of seasons. The Chinese used a 24-segment seasonal calendar based on solar and lunar events. The Japanese took this idea to a whole new level, and in 1695, astronomer Shiukawa Shunkai re-wrote it into 72 micro-seasons. Of course, with the renowned connection to nature and honoring beauty that is so often displayed by the Japanese culture, the names of these seasons read like poetry. For example, Mist Starts to Linger; First Rainbows; Hawks Learn to Fly; and perhaps my favorite Dew Glistens White on Grass. One micro-season, from August 18-22 is called Fukaki kiri mato, which means Thick Fog Descends.
Mysterious as fog is in and of itself, it sometimes offers an additional treasure. Have you ever seen a white rainbow? They’re also known as fogbows (and cloudbows and ghost rainbows). Rainbows occur when light bends through raindrops; fogbows form when light bends through the much smaller water droplets in the fog. The smaller water droplets cause the colors to overlap and blur, creating the white color. While I’ve never seen one, this public domain photo makes me hope I do one day.
Musing about brume and clouds reminds me of yet another obsolete word I adore – obnubilate. It means to darken, dim or cover with or as if with a cloud; obscure; make unclear, indistinct, or blurred. Becloud. (First know usage 1583). I count extra bonus points for this word, because I also find the word “becloud” absolutely swoon-worthy.
I have to laugh a bit at myself when I fall in love with a word. I’m simultaneously excited to have discovered it and also a tiny bit perturbed that there could be such a glorious word out there that I’ve lived this long without knowing. Think of all the time I could have been rolling it off my tongue, tossing it into conversations, and simply pondering it!
But I also find it a wonderful kind of incentive – to keep my eyes peeled and my ears open for other fabulousities that delight me. They’re out there, all over the place, sometimes hidden in brume, awaiting our discovery, our noticing, our awareness.
What about you? Find brume mysteriously compelling? Ever seen a fogbow? What cloudland do you belong to – the sky, your dreams, the land of imagination, or perhaps the more pragmatic land of file storage? Do tell – you know I love to hear.
Wow…never heard of brume or fogbow… And I do love THE SKY… so many different images I’ve captured just keeping my eyes peeled! I’m in tune for sure!!!
“Eyes to the skies” is a favorite mantra of a friend of mine, and it’s never failed to serve me well.
But then again, I’ve always loved “beauty above, beauty below, beauty to the left of us, beauty to the right of us, beauty on us, beauty all around us.”
Hari Om
Here in the Bonny Land, which is long and narrow and heavily coastal, the majority of our fog events are HAAR (aka sea fret—fog created by a combination of climate conditions specific to the shoreline). Any inland fog tends, for the most part, to be fallen cloud. I love to watch the hill tops appear as the sky gradually lifts its ‘sheets’ from its bed on earth… I adore the sensation of cocooning that fog provides… YAM xx
Such lovely images you offer! Fallen cloud and sea fret – I’m running those delicious words through my mind now.
I love fog. I enjoy taking pictures when it rarely happens around here. I, too, fall in love with some words. I put them in a list.
A kindred fog-lover and word lister – how very nice!
I know this word from French! Fog is mysterious and muffled; I like a little bit of it although one December we were shrouded in it constantly. It was awful for air quality and also stifling. I adore clouds also; where I live we often have a mix of blue and clouds. Their formations are works of art.
The Museum of Cloudland Art – that’s a place I’m happy to visit often.
This is two posts in a row that I read a beautiful post of yours AND learned a new vocabulary word! I’d say I belong in the brume of…imagination, I guess?
Oh, that delights me – brume of imagination!
I didn’t know fogbows existed! How delightful! 🙂
The Multicolored Diary
Truly!
I also enjoy obscure words so this is right up my line of interest. Years ago I went camping at Cloudland Canyon State Park in Georgia. I loved that place but have never been back. Someday maybe.
Lee
Oh, Cloudland Canyon – just hearing of its existence makes my heart happy!
I do like fog, but that’s because I never have to cross the moors in it, I guess. And I do have to wonder about all the years in which it just doesn’t happen to be foggy on August 18-22!
https://nydamprintsblackandwhite.blogspot.com/2025/03/b-is-for-broken-by-beauty.html
You make me laugh Anne.
As a Geography student ,I studied some meteorology, but I had never heard the word brume, so thanks for that!
I think it is worth pointing out that fog (brume) is just cloud at ground level and obviously rain starts within cloud, but the most beautiful fog phenomena I ever saw, was in freezing fog – looking up at a lampost, the air was full of little hexagonal plate style snowflakes glittering in the lamplight and so light that they were swirling every which way… What surprised me was the consistent shape type – why were there not myriad other types of snowflake and they were all the same tiny size too.
Lovely post, Deborah!
Oh what a fabulous sighting!
Oh, I’ll have to watch for a fogbow. I like to watch the sky anyway, so now I have something else to look for. Brume is a great word!
I certainly hope you see one someday, Brenda. And in the meantime, I know there will be so many other sky delights to be witnessed.
Love brume–both the sound and the meaning. (And yes, becloud.) And the idea of fog-chasing. I feel happy when I wake up to morning mist, and if it is misty al day, it’s an added bonus.
My dad told me about some fog-chasing of a different kind that he did as a young man new to London. He had heard about the fogs–smogs really–“pea-soupers” where, reportedly, you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face–ad was intrigued. So when there was a pea-souper forecast, he ask my mum, whom he was courting then, to meet him in at particular corner. It was exactly as they said; there was no way he and Mum could have found each other. I have no idea how they each made their way home.
Oh, I love that, Josna. I’ve read accounts of “pea-soupers,” but to have a personal story about the experience is wonderful.
I hope there are lots of misty days waiting to make you happy!
My husband always says that fog is just a cloud on the ground, so we walk through clouds on foggy days.
I love that, Joy. How does it get better than cloud walking?
I love walking in the fog, especially when the day is still new and not many are awake, hearing the horses somewhere in the white darkness as they greet me.
Ronel visiting for A-Z Challenge Bast the Protector & My Languishing TBR: B #AtoZChallenge2025 #Books #Bookreview
Oh, Ronel, what a beautiful image! That makes my heart very very happy.