Does your language distinguish between stuffiness and mugginess?

12 comments

1. Our word for hot and humid is schwül. It is not a coincidence that the word without the umlaut means gay (usually for men).

   A stuffy room would be called stickig.

2. In German stuffines would be “stickig” and mugginess would be “schwül” (sounds pretty similar to “schwul” which means gay, so new learners might mix em up)

3. Not sure to have really well understood OP but in french if it’s hot, we say that “il fait chaud”, if it’s humid we say that “il fait humide” and if it’s hot and humid we say that “il fait lourd”

4. The general feeling of stuffiness could be conveyed by our word *abafado*

   Muginess is harder to translate. If it’s a muggy window you could use the word *embaciado*. If it’s muggy weather/air, you could use *[mormaço](https://www.infopedia.pt/dicionarios/lingua-portuguesa/morma%C3%A7o)* or even *[bochorno](https://www.infopedia.pt/dicionarios/lingua-portuguesa/Bochorno)*.

   But if you’re talking about a muggy room, I think you might have to describe the feeling with more words.

5. We use these words to describe air:
   – Bad air (dårlig luft): For air that smells bad or feels “claustrophobic” from high co2 levels.
   – Humid air (fuktig luft): For air that feels thick, but doesn’t necessarily smell bad or feel “claustrophobic”.
   – Fresh air (frisk luft): Feels light and has less smell than indoor air.

   It’s basically the same as in English. We have a lot of other words for air too such as:
   – Sjøluft (sea air)
   – Morgenluft (morning air)
   – Natteluft (night air)
   – Tropeluft (tropical air)
   – Inneluft (indoor air)
   – Fjelluft (mountain air)
   – Osloluft (Oslo air)

6. We have “benauwd” for hot humid weather. It’s the same word you use if you find it hard to breath due to for example asthma or Covid. Literally translated it means something like constricted. In a poorly ventilated room with stale air I would probably say “muf” but that’s also partly about the smell. Hot weather without high humidity is just warm/heet.

7. In Finnish we use “**kuuma**” for hot and “**kuumankostea**” (literally meaning hot-humid) for humid air when it’s hot. **”Kostea”** on it’s own can also mean moist or damp.

   In Estonian we use “**palav**” or “**kuum**” for hot and “**niiske**” for humid. Niiske can mean moist or damp, too.

8. In the first case, we say “bochorno”, while in the second we’d say the Air is “enrarecido”

9. Not sure I’ve understood correctly, but the Italian adjective for hot and humid weather is “afoso”, from the name “afa” which indicates the weather condition mixing heat and humidity.

   When the the temperature is just hot, usually people say “fa molto caldo”.

10. Hot and humid = soparno
    Hot but crappy air = zatohlo

11. For some reason this reminded me of that 4chan gym meme about creepy or wet.

12. There are to words :

    duchota/duszność,/duszno – when the place is badly ventilated and the air is stiff.

    parność/parno – if it is stiff and humid.