the.com/smoke
the visible ghost of fire, every particle a tiny eulogy for something that used to be solid
means The grey or black airborne mixture of gases and fine particles released when something burns.
from From Old English 'smoca' (noun) and 'smocian' (verb), descended from a Proto-Germanic root 'smuk-' meaning to smoke or smolder — a cousin of Dutch 'smook' and German 'Schmauch'. The same ancient root is thought to be related to a Proto-Indo-European 'smeug-', tied to smoldering and smoke. The word has drifted into figurative life over centuries, from 'go up in smoke' to 'where there's smoke there's fire,' but at its core it's always meant the same thing the eye sees rising off a flame.
- physics
- It's airborne solids, not gas, technically a suspension
- signaling
- Smoke signals carried messages miles before electricity existed
- papal vote
- White smoke means the cardinals finally picked a pope
- flavor
- Smoking food preserves it by killing microbes chemically
- deaths
- Most fire fatalities come from inhalation, not flames
great smog of london — killed approximately 12,000 people in december 1952
camp fire 2018 — deadliest wildfire in california history, created smoke visible from space
delhi air quality crisis — annual winter smoke pollution from agricultural burning in punjab, aqi regularly exceeds 400