2011_10_07 vesuvian \vuh-SOO-vee-uhn\, adjective: Volcanic;

vesuvian \vuh-SOO-vee-uhn\, adjective:
1. Volcanic; of, pertaining to, or resembling Mount Vesuvius.
noun:
1. A type of match formerly used for lighting cigars; fusee.
He shaved in cold water and was beginning to dress when the hot-water spout made a vesuvian racket and began to ejaculate rusty and scalding water.
-- John Cheever, The Stories of John Cheever
Who could have dreamed that such tragic depths lay behind that serene face, and that her orderly precision was like the grass and flowers upon volcanic soil with vesuvian fires slumbering below?
-- William Hale White, The Autobiography of Mark Rutherford
Vesuvian derives from the famous eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD that destroyed the town of Pompeii.