a. (sb.) [f. L. etēsi-us, a. Gr. ἐτήσιος, lit. ‘annual,’ f. ἔτος year + -AN.]
1. a. properly, The distinctive epithet of certain winds in the region of the Mediterranean, blowing from the NW. for about 40 days annually in the summer. † b. Hence, occasionally, applied to winds annually blowing from a particular quarter in other parts of the world, as the trade-winds, monsoons, etc.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 473. The Ides of Iuly, which are fore-runners of the Etesian winds.
1635. N. Carpenter, Geog. Del., II. vi. 102. The Etesian winde, which is obserued to blow euery yeere from the Northeast about the rising of Dog-starre.
1704. Swift, Batt. Bks. (1711), 257. A sheet of Lead, which an Etesian Wind blows suddenly down from the Roof of some Steeple.
1775. R. Chandler, Trav. Asia M. (1825), I. 21. Vessels find shelter in its port … during the etesian or contrary winds.
1828. Lemprière’s Classical Dict. (ed. Barker), 304. Those winds are properly Etesian which blow from that part of the horizon which is beneath the north and west.
1853. Grote, Greece, II. lxxxiv. XI. 123. A gentle and steady Etesian breeze carried them across.
fig. 1858. De Quincey, Parr, Wks. V. 52. Had Dr. Bridges happened to be a vulgar sectarian … those etesian gales or annual monsoons would have been hailed by Parr as the harbingers of a triumph in reversion.
† 2. quasi-sb. Obs.
1658. Ussher, Ann., 346. Whom they nicknamed the Etesian, because he continued in the place but 45 dayes.
1675. Evelyn, Terra (1729), 45. The Protection of a thin Hedge or Canvas Curtain … defend them from our too constant and rigorous Etesians.
1684. Phil. Trans., XIV. 561. These Eastern Winds (which I call our English Etesians).
