qobar

== English == === Etymology === From Ge'ez ቆባረ (ḳobarä, “darkness, blackness; fog, mist, dust”), from ቆበረ (ḳobärä, “become black, dark, or foggy”), which Antoine d'Abbadie said derives from the root ق ب ر (q b r, “bury”), because it "buries" the landscape and obscures the stars. Wolf Leslau alternatively speculated that it is "perhaps related" to Arabic كفر (kifr, “darkness of the night”) from the root ك ف ر (k f r, “conceal”). === Pronunciation === (General American) IPA(key): /ˌkoʊˈbɑːɹ/ === Noun === qobar (plural not attested) (rare) A dry fog or dry haze, chiefly of the upper Nile but rarely also elsewhere, which has a brownish-yellow color when slight (sometimes only perceptible from a distance) and darker yellow-grey color when thicker (sometimes obscuring the landscape and blotting out the stars). 1889 January 3, Antoine d'Abbadie, in a letter to the editor of Nature, volume 39, pages 247-248: Humboldt, viewing qobar in Peru, says […] . When travelling in Spain, Willkomm remarked qobar at a distance of 3 or 4 miles, yet, on reaching the actual spot, he saw nothing. […] Bravais saw qobar on the Faulhorn, when his hygrometer was at 51, air saturated with moisture marking 100. In Ethiopia, where I have observed it so low as 20, the hygrometer's mean reading was 41 when qobar was conspicuous. Above 72 it disappeared. === References ===