What is the origin of the word "typhoon"?

A typhoon is a mature tropical wind that develops in the western part of the North Pacific Ocean between 180° and 100°E.

A typhoon differs from a cyclone or hurricane only on the basis of location.A hurricane is a storm that occurs in the Atlantic Ocean and northeastern Pacific Ocean, a typhoon occurs in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, and a cyclone occurs in the south Pacific or Indian Ocean.

Monsoon, typhoon These words referred to wind and rain events off the coasts of India and China in their earliest use in Western languages and are seen first in Portuguese in the early 16th century. Arabic sea-merchants were active in the East Indies long before the Portuguese arrived ." موسم" mawsim, season, used in Arabic for anything that comes round once a year (such as festive season) and used by Arab sailors in the East Indies for the seasonal sailing winds. طوفان tūfān, a big rainstorm, a deluge, and used in the Koran for Noah's Flood.

More Info: en.wikipedia.org

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28 Comments

Peter Bennett

"typhoon" comes from the CHINESE - dai feng" (big wind)

George Oliver Prince

There seems to be some disagreement among etymologists as to the derivation. I saw several sites that said Greek, Mandarin and Arabic. I'm not sure there is a definitive answer

Kat

I am quite sure that the origin is Chinese. It then moved eastward to be translated into Arabic, Hindi and Persian. Since the explanation of the "answer" wasn't even an answer, I don't think this question was very well reviewed.

Christine Gardner

Definitely NOT the Arabic - late 16th century: partly via Portuguese from Arabic ṭūfān (perhaps from Greek tuphōn ‘whirlwind’); reinforced by Chinese dialect tai fung ‘big wind’. The origin of the word “typhoon” is commonly ascribed to the Chinese 颱風 – “great wind” (daaihfùng in Cantonese).1 Sept 2017 Please get these type of questions RIGHT.

Alec Boreham

Typhoon comes from the Chinese, apart from that the Greek version pre-dated the Arabic version.

Jorge Trejos

The origin of the word “typhoon” is commonly ascribed to the Chinese 颱風 – “great wind” (daaihfùng in Cantonese).

Robert Lee

Also just submitted to review - Chinese is the correct answer. This answer does not even cite the Arabic equivalent. As others have already stated, it's Ty Phong or Ty Phoon in Chinese pronunciation. Please correct.

Usha Singh

Greek , arabic ,Chinese and Portuguese

sftcw

Typhoon is a direct translation of the Chinese word for big wind. The answer of Arabic as provided by this author is definitely wrong. Typhoon occurs mostly in the Pacific oceans and frequently going into waters near China (and Southeast Asia) such as the South China Sea. Is there actually Typhoon is Arabic countries?

Rafi Manory

For people who lived in the far east the answer Chinese is very clear The Arabs have hardly encountered them. They have "hamsin".

Fred Keogh

As Confucius once said '' A question has many answers, but an answer has only one question'' No he didn't I just made that up!

Player

Kate Salinger, Wikipedia contradicts itself again

Denise Currie

Google says: Late 16th century via Portuguese from the Arabic Tufan (perhaps from Greek tuphon meaning 'whirlwind'); reinforced by the Chinese dialect tai fung meaning 'big wind'. So there are one or two answers to go for in that lot. I checked this after reading some of the comments, I had already opted for Arabic,

Rajnish Gautam

Explanation does not match the answer Arabic. It equally describes Chinese Arabic.

Hernando Villegas

Your explanation is about how the typhoons develop and how the typhoon differs from the cyclone and hurricane. However, your question is about the origin of the WORD typhoon, which you did not cover in your explanation.