typhoon

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“
Roughly speaking, a typhoon is a terrific storm.

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Definitions (5)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun A tropical cyclone occurring in the western Pacific or Indian oceans.
  2. Word History
    The history of typhoon presents a perfect example of the long journey that many words made in coming to English. It traveled from Greece to Arabia to India, and also arose independently in China, before assuming its current form in our language. The Greek word tuphōn, used both as the name of the father of the winds and a common noun meaning "whirlwind, typhoon,” was borrowed into Arabic during the Middle Ages, when Arabic learning both preserved and expanded the classical heritage and passed it on to Europe and other parts of the world. Ṭūfān, the Arabic version of the Greek word, passed into languages spoken in India, where Arabic-speaking Muslim invaders had settled in the 11th century. Thus the descendant of the Arabic word, passing into English (first recorded in 1588) through an Indian language and appearing in English in forms such as touffon and tufan, originally referred specifically to a severe storm in India. The modern form of typhoon was influenced by a borrowing from the Cantonese variety of Chinese, namely the word taaîfung, and respelled to make it look more like Greek. Taaîfung, meaning literally "great wind,” was coincidentally similar to the Arabic borrowing and is first recorded in English guise as tuffoon in 1699. The various forms coalesced and finally became typhoon, a spelling that first appeared in 1819 in Shelley's Prometheus Unbound.

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Examples (50)

  • A land warning for the typhoon might be issued early today, the bureau said. —  Taipei Times
  • "However, people must not relax their vigilance as the typhoon is expected to spark more rains in the day to come," he said. —  Channel NewsAsia Front Page News
  • Ten people are missing and 20 were injured after Sinlaku hit Taiwan as a typhoon, the National Fire Agency said. —  News On Japan
  • Laos after leaving a trail of destruction and death across southeast Philippines - The Philippines began evacuating a province near Manila on Thursday ahead of a looming typhoon, as rain falling on the saturated capital added to the misery of victims of recent storms in years extended its deadly path across, blowing down wooden villages in and crushing —  WN.com - Articles related to Bogota Marriott Hotel celebrates grand opening
  • MANILA 'Tens of thousands of villagers fled the likely path of a powerful Philippines -- The Philippines began evacuating a province near Manila yesterday ahead of a looming typhoon, as rain falling on the saturated capital added to the misery of victims of recent Typhoon Ketsana, locally known as Ondoy, in Montalban Rizal, west of Philippines declared a nationwide state of calamity on Friday as a "super typhoon" —  WN.com - Articles related to Exclusive: Beyonce And Lady Gaga's 'Video Phone' Clip Confirmed!
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Etymologies (2)

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  1. Greek tuphōn, whirlwind, and Arabic ṭūfān, deluge (from Greek tuphōn), and Chinese (Cantonese) taaîfung (equivalent to Chinese (Mandarin) tái, great + Chinese (Mandarin) fēng, wind).

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Formerly also tyfoon; altered, in simulation of typhon, from the earlier tuffoon (1680), tuffon (1610), touffon (1567), from Portuguese tufão, from Arabic Persian Hind, tūfān (whence in recent Anglo-Indian tufan, toofan, toofaun, touffan), a sudden and violent storm, a tempest, hurricane. The Arabic Persian Hindustani tūfān does not appear to be original in any of those languages, and may have been derived from the Greek τυφῶν whence also English typhon: see typhon. Cf. Chinese t'ai fŭng, ‘a great wind’ (of any kind): ta, t'ai, great; fŭng (also given as făng, fêng), in Canton fong, wind. The term tai fŭng, a cyclone, a local name in Formosa, may be from the Chinese t'ai fŭng in its general sense. The Chinese names for typhoon are pao fŭng, literally ‘fierce wind,’ kiu fŭtng, literally‘cyclone wind’ (kiu, a furious cyclone, whirlwind, a wind which comes from four sides at once). The Chinese terms have prob. no connection with the Arabic Persian Hindustani word.
 

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/taɪˈfun/
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