Wu Liguang. 2020. Historical evolution of the word "Typhoon". Acta Meteorologica Sinica, 78(6):1065-1075. DOI: 10.11676/qxxb2020.072
Citation: Wu Liguang. 2020. Historical evolution of the word "Typhoon". Acta Meteorologica Sinica, 78(6):1065-1075. DOI: 10.11676/qxxb2020.072

Historical evolution of the word "Typhoon"

  • As a well-known weather phenomenon, the etymology of typhoon has been debated for more than 300 years. Based on ancient and modern documents available all over the world, it is found that the debate on the etymology of typhoon started from the publication of The Voyages and Adventures of Ferdinand Mendez Pinto in the 16th century and that there is no convincing evidence for the Greek or Arabian origin of the word "typhoon". On the contrary, its origin can be traced back to the dialects in the southeast coastal region of China since the Song Dynasty although Jufeng (hurricane) was officially used for more than 1000 years. The word is pronounced as "Feng Chi" in Southern Zhejiang Dialect (Chinese Wu Language), "Chi Feng" in Fujian Dialect (Chinese Min Language), and then "Feng Tai" or "Tai Feng" in Fujian Dialect because "Chi" and "Tai" are pronounced similarly in Fujian Dialect.
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