Foehn

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /fɜːn/

Definitions

1. A specific type of warm and dry wind that occurs on the leeward side of mountains, characterized by its descent and heating as it passes over peaks
2. This phenomenon refers to a dry, warming wind that flows down from mountains, often leading to significant temperature changes in the surrounding areas
3. A distinct warm and dry wind resulting from air descending the leeward side of mountains, leading to variations in local climate and weather conditions

Etymology: The Alpine wind that can melt a ski slope in an afternoon carries the name of a Roman god of the west wind. Latin "favonius" was the name of Favonius, a wind deity, and the word for the warm westerly that brought spring weather. Over the centuries it passed through Vulgar Latin as "faonius" and into Old High German as "phonno," the ancestor of the German "Föhn." German speakers applied the name to the dry, warm downslope gusts that pour off the Alps, and English borrowed it from German for that same meteorological sense. The god's name thus survives in a wind that has nothing to do with the west, only with the mountains that channel it down into the valleys below.

Synonyms: chinook, warm wind