the.com/billow
When fabric, smoke, or sails decide to breathe in public.
means To swell, surge, and roll outward in great rounded waves, like a sail catching wind or smoke escaping.
from From Old Norse bylgja, meaning a wave or swell — the language of people who knew the sea intimately and feared it appropriately.
Sea rootsOriginally meant only ocean waves, not curtains.
PhysicsNeeds a moving medium — air or water — to billow.
Poetic favoriteRomantic poets adored it for storms and emotion.