misty

From Middle English misty, mysty, misti, from Old English mistiġ (“misty, dark”), from Proto-West Germanic *mistig (“misty”), equivalent to mist +‎ -y. Cognate with Scots misty, mistie (“misty”), West Frisian mistich (“misty, foggy”), Dutch mistig (“misty, foggy”), German Low German mistig (“foggy”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɪsti/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪsti

misty (comparative mistier, superlative mistiest)

1. Covered in mist; foggy.

   It's very misty this morning; I can't see a thing!

2. (figuratively) Dim; vague; obscure.

   a misty memory of his childhood

   • 1861, E. J. Guerin, Mountain Charley, page 10:

     My remembrances of the place and its people are misty — all about it seem more like something I once saw in a dream, but whose characters time has effaced.

   • 2005 February 7, Ben Ratliff, “New CD's”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     Mr. Motian's own tunes, folk-simple locomotions of straight melody, fast or slow, with acres of room for interpretation, have accounted for some of the mistier sets.

   • 2010 July 23, Joseph Berger, “The Latino Lag”, in The New York Times‎^[2]:

     But she soon found out how little equipped she was for college study. Not only was Ms. Segovia’s English rocky, but she had only the mistiest notions of what college was all about.

3. (figuratively) With tears in the eyes; dewy-eyed.

   Her eyes grew misty the night her long-time friend passed away.

• mistify
• mistiness

• stimy

misty

1. alternative form of mysty (“misty”)

misty

1. alternative form of mysty (“figurative”)