Forms: 7 camsim, 8–9 campsin, (9 kampseen), 9 kamsin, khamsin, -seen. [Arab. khamsīn, mod. colloquial form (= oblique case) of khamsūn fifty (see def.).] An oppressive hot wind from the south or south-east, which in Egypt blows at intervals for about 50 days in March, April, and May, and fills the air with sand from the desert.
1685. Boyle, Salub. Air, 74. A kind of Dew, which … purifies the Air from all the Infection of Camsims.
1757. Huxham, in Phil. Trans., L. 428. The wind we had, like the Campsin, actually blew hot.
1804. C. B. Brown, trans. Volney’s View Soil U. S., 142. The kamsin, or south wind, in Egypt, and the south-west at Bagdat and Bussora, have the same properties.
1883. E. F. Knight, Cruise ‘Falcon’ (1887), 65. The atmosphere is hot, dry, and oppressive as that of North Africa when the khamsin blows.
attrib. 1896. Blackw. Mag., Sept., 332/1. The hot khamseen winds, which parch the fields.
