verb. To be extremely hot (weather)
It vesuviates. This sudden heat in the atmosphere has something to do with the eruption of the mountain which killed Pliny the Elder. The inner fire of this planet cannot come to the surface without affecting the whole atmosphere.
– Thoughts in My Garden, Mortimer Collins (1880)
What a neat word! It’s picturesque almost. I see a volcano erupting and feel the heat that those 9 letters contain.
Most well-educated people (and who knows how many of those there are with the budget that schools are getting) know something about Mount Vesuvius, at least they know it’s a volcano. So if you happen to use this word — and you should — your partner in conversation will most likely gather you are speaking of something cataclysmic.
That’s hot.