brumal

bru•mal (BROO-muhl)  adj

Definition:
1. belonging to winter; winter-like
2. characteristic or related to winter
3. occurring in winter

Origin:
1513; from L. brumalis, from bruma "winter" (perhaps with an original sense "season of the shortest day," from *brevima, contracted from brevissima, superl. of brevis "short"). Source of Brumaire, second month (Oct. 22-Nov. 20) in calendar of the French Republic, lit. "the foggy month," coined 1793 by Fabre d'Eglantine from Fr. brume "fog," from L. bruma

Related:
Synonyms: hibernal, hiemal, wintry
Related Words: brume, brumous

Sentence Examples:
• But we were now in the very heart of winter, and after much frost scarcely a single wretched brumal flower lingered and languished. -Shelley at Oxford, Thomas Jefferson Hogg

• The robin returns from the land of fire, and therefore he feels the cold of winter far more than his brother birds. He shivers in the brumal blast; hungry, he chirps before your door. Oh! my child, then, in gratitude throw a few crumbs to poor red-breast.

•         "Old longings nomadic leap,
          Chafing at custom's chain;
          Again from its brumal sleep
          Wakens the ferine strain."
-The Call of the Wild, Jack London

The Storyline
Anna felt cold. Outside it was summer. But in that office the climate was brumal.

Sources: Wiktionary, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day