the.com/vapour
Water's way of ghosting you without ever leaving the room.
means A mass of tiny water droplets or moisture suspended in air — visible as mist, steam, or fog, but technically distinct from true gas-phase water vapor.
from From Old French 'vapour,' tracing back to Latin 'vapor' meaning steam or exhalation. The word carried a second life in medicine: for centuries, 'vapours' referred to the imagined fumes rising from internal organs that were believed to cause faintness, melancholy, or hysteria — hence the old phrase 'a fit of the vapours.' That medical sense faded, but the core idea stuck: something insubstantial, rising, and quick to dissipate.
- not steam
- invisible gas, not the visible white cloud
- always present
- air holds it even on clear dry days
- phase trick
- skips liquid entirely when ice sublimates
- greenhouse mvp
- outweighs co2 as a warming gas