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eldin raigmore
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 Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 11:11 pm Post subject: Typhon and typhoon; Typhoeus and typhus. |
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A Chinese friend of mine once said that the word "typhoon" comes from the Chinese 太风 (Tŕi fēng) meaning "giant wind" (or "great wind").
But Wikipedia among other sources says it's from a Persian word related to the Greek name "Typhon" for the father of monsters.
Which is closer to correct?
(Note Xuŕnfēng 旋风 "twisted wind" for tornado.)
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Also:
The word for the disease "typhus" is similar in sound to the form "Typhoeus" of Typhon's name.
| http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/611792/Typhon wrote: | | Typhon, also spelled Typhaon, or Typhoeus, in Greek mythology, youngest son of Gaea (Earth) and Tartarus (of the nether world). He was described as a grisly monster with a hundred dragons’ heads who was conquered and cast into the underworld by Zeus. In other accounts, he was confined in the land of the Arimi in Cilicia or under Mount Etna or in other volcanic regions, where he was the cause of eruptions. Typhon was thus the personification of volcanic forces. |
| http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhon#Origin_of_name wrote: | | Typhon may be derived from the Greek τύφειν (typhein), to smoke, hence it is considered to be a possible etymology for the word typhoon, supposedly borrowed by the Persians (as طوفان Tufân) and Arabs to describe the cyclonic storms of the Indian Ocean.[citation needed] |
So it looks like "typhoon" and "typhus" are related? Through "Typhon" and "Typhoeus".
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Kiri
Joined: 13 Jun 2009
Posts: 471
Location: Latvia/Italy
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| Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2012 12:55 pm Post subject: |
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I think it is important to note that not all similiar words are in fact related.
I always assumed the word "typhoon" comes through Japanese 台風 (taifū) - "typhoon, hurricane" but that might be wrong, hence what I wrote above.
The good people at Wiktionary say this:
Probably ultimately of Sinitic origin, Mandarin 大风 (dŕfēng, “big wind”), Cantonese 大風 (daai6 fung1, “big wind”), via Arabic طوفان (ṭūfān), Hindi तूफ़ान (tūfān), and Persian طوفان (tufân). Given the location of typhoons as a Pacific Ocean phenomena, it is more likely it began east and moved west. Ancient Greek Τυφῶν (Tuphōn, “Typhon, father of the winds”) is unrelated but has secondarily contaminated the word.
In other words, Chinese origin seems the most probable. |
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eldin raigmore
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Location: SouthEast Michigan
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| Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2012 4:12 pm Post subject: |
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One or the other. I don't know how to find out. But from-Pacific-or-Indian-Ocean to the Levant and the Mediterranean, does seem (on the face of it) likelier to me, too.
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