effluvium

Noun

effluvium (countable and uncountable, plural effluvia or effluviums)

1. A gaseous or vaporous emission, especially a foul-smelling one.
   • She was now bending over a huge light wood blaze, with a pipe of rude structure and no small dimensions in her mouth, from which the occasional puff went forth, filling the apartment with the unpleasant effluvia of the vilest leaf-tobacco.1835, William Gilmore Simms, The Partisan, Harper, Chapter XV, page 188
   • It was the mere effluvium of the flame, the subtle ether that it cast off as it passed, working on us, and making us feel strong as giants and swift as eagles.1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC
2. A condition causing the shedding of hair.
   • Reversible hair loss or effluvium occurs following either endogenous or exogenous damage to anagen hair follicles[…].2000, Dr. Otto Braun-Falco et al., “Diseases of hair”, in Dermatology, →ISBN, page 1136