pea-souper

9.9

A thick yellow fog caused by smoke and damp air

noun
/piːˈsuːpə/

Archaic

: niebla espesa

During the 1950s, London was notorious for its pea-souper fog, often caused by coal smoke.

Examples

In there somewhere, Eileen, but careful, it's a real pea souper.

Crackerjack (2002)
As we walked through the pea-souper, the streetlights created an eerie glow through the thick yellow mist.
Last winter, the city was enveloped in a pea-souper, making it difficult to see just a few meters ahead.

Synonyms

fog

vspea-souper

155 1.0

A thick cloud of tiny water drops near the ground that makes it hard to see

is pollution based yellow mist rather than ordinary water droplet mist

smog

vspea-souper

38 2.0

A mix of smoke and fog that makes the air dirty

is a yellowish very dense pollution mist typical in past British cities

thick fog

vspea-souper

2 1.3

A heavy cloud near the ground that makes it hard to see far

is same density but specifically pollution yellow rather than plain mist

pea soup

vspea-souper

Archaic

1 7.0

A very thick yellow fog that makes it hard to see

is the older term for very dense pollution yellow mist in British cities

fogbank

vspea-souper

8.4

A large thick area of fog over the sea

is urban yellow pollution mist not a distant sea mass

Antonyms

cloudless

8 1.0

A sky with no clouds

sunny weather

1 1.0

Bright weather with a clear sky and no rain

How Thick

pea-souper

Archaic

9.9

thick fog

2 1.3

fog

155 1.0

mist

115 1.0

Surface Forms

pea-souper singular

pea-soupers plural

Morphology

pea-souper = pea + soup (semi-transparent) = pea + soup

The compound likens a thick, yellowish fog to 'pea soup'; the metaphorical link is clear but not a literal or fully regular compositional meaning.

Etymology

Pea-souper comes from the image of fog that looked like a thick bowl of pea and soup ('pea soup'), because city smoke and damp air made it yellow-green and hard to see through. That's why a pea-souper means a very thick, yellowish fog caused by pollution.