miasma means A noxious atmosphere or emanation once thought to originate from swamps and waste, and to cause disease. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 85 out of 100.
miasma is pronounced /miˈæzmə/.
Why “miasma” is a great word
MIASMA — [Noun] A noxious atmosphere or emanation, originally thought to arise from decaying matter and cause disease, and now often used for a pervasive corrupting influence. From Ancient Greek μίασμα (míasma, "stain, pollution"), from μῐαίνω (miaínō, "to stain, pollute"). First attested in English in 1665. Unlike "effluvium," which specifies a foul vapor, or "stigma," which marks a social disgrace, a miasma is an environmental stain, a corruption that clings to place and air. It is the palpable dread of a swamp at dusk, the moral rot that hangs in a corrupt court, and the psychic weight of a shared and unspoken guilt—the ancient intuition that sickness, whether of body or spirit, begins in the very air we are forced to breathe.
noun
- A noxious atmosphere or emanation once thought to originate from swamps and waste, and to cause disease.“There was an earthy smell, as of some dry miasma, which came through the fouler air.”
- A noxious atmosphere or influence, an ominous environment.“In 1883, the contract came up for renewal, the L.N.W.R. received it, and the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company was set aside. But there was a certain miasma of secrecy about the affair, so that many, especially in Ireland, looked for information and insisted on getting it.”