brickfielder means A hot, dry, dusty wind of southern or central Australia. It carries an Arena rating of 1487, earned across 45 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, brickfielder ranks #286 of 13,276 for Most Ponderous Words, #378 of 13,276 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #2,118 of 13,276 for Most Exacting Words, #2,245 of 13,276 for Most Storied Words.
Why “brickfielder” is a great word
BRICKFIELDER — [Noun] A hot, dry, dust-laden wind native to southern and central Australia. From the location name Brickfield Hill in Surry Hills, Sydney, from the direction of which such a wind blew in the early colonial period, + the agent suffix -er. The term is attested from 1829. Unlike a sirocco, freighted with Saharan history, or a generic dust storm, defined by particulate matter, a brickfielder is a localized, named oppression of the air. It is the taste of powdered earth on the tongue, the sting of airborne grit, and the sight of a red haze blurring the line between plain and sky—a dry insistence that the land will have the final word.
Etymology
From the location name Brickfield Hill, after the hill in Surry Hills (now in inner Sydney) from the direction of which a hot wind blew into Sydney in its early days. The term spread to Melbourne by circa 1850, and to central Australia by circa 1900, then to Western Australia.
noun
- A hot, dry, dusty wind of southern or central Australia.“Returning home, he discovers that the house is full of sand ; that the brickfielder has even insinuated itself between the leaves of his books ; that at dinner he will probably find that his favourite dish has been spoiled by the brickfielder.”
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- simoom 79% match — A hot, dry, suffocating, dust-laden wind of the desert, particularly of Arabia, Syria, and neighboring countries, generated by the extreme heat of the parched deserts or sandy plains. vs brickfielder →
- ghibli 79% match — sirocco vs brickfielder →
- zonda 79% match — A hot, dry wind of the Andes. vs brickfielder →
- samiel 78% match — A hot desert wind, simoom. vs brickfielder →
- bergwind 78% match — A hot dry wind blowing from the mountainous interior to the coast. vs brickfielder →
- khamaseen 77% match — An oppressive, hot, dusty, south or south-east wind occurring elsewhere in North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Levant, intermittently in late winter through late spring. vs brickfielder →
- sharqi 77% match — A hot desert wind in an Arabic country, especially in North Africa. vs brickfielder →
- harmattan 77% match — A dry and dusty wind which blows from the Sahara over the Atlantic coast of West Africa in December, January and February, being a hot wind in some areas and a cold wind in others. vs brickfielder →