pea-souper
UK /ˈpiːˌsuːpə/ · US /ˈpiˌsupɚ/ noun
Forms pea-soupers peasouper pea souper
- noun (UK, Canada, informal) A dense, yellowish fog, often mixed with smoke; a pea-soup fog, a smog. “A man bumped into a lamp post during a pea-souper; he immediately apologised to it, not realising what it was.”
- noun (Canada, slang, derogatory) A French-Canadian person, especially a Francophone from the province of Québec. “Those pea-soupers are the worst drivers on the road!”
Synonyms
Etymology
From pea soup + -er (suffix meaning ‘person or thing connected with’);
* (dense, yellowish fog): from the appearance of the fog
* (French-Canadian person): may be from the prevalence of pea soup in French cuisine: compare pea soup (“(slang, derogatory) French person”).
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “pea-souper”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details