(urth) Grand Unified Theory
David Stockhoff
dstockhoff at verizon.net
Wed Aug 25 13:56:25 PDT 2010
Is it possible that the supposedly Cantonese word "typhoon" is strictly
an accident arising from a translation to English of a word an Italian
heard in China under the influence of "typhon"?
That would make the word almost purely Western, gaining its Cantonese
meaning only because a Chinese word sounds like it. Pure Orientalism.
António Marques wrote:
> The best I've seen so far is below, though it gives no evidence at all
> for the greek connection:
>
> http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/typhoon
> typhoon
> the modern word represents a coincidence and convergence of at least
> two unrelated words of similar sound and sense. Tiphon "violent
> storm, whirlwind, tornado" is recorded from 1555, from Gk. typhon
> "whirlwind," personified as a giant, father of the winds, perhaps from
> typhein "to smoke." The meaning "cyclone, violent hurricane of India
> or the China Seas" (1588) is first recorded in T. Hickock's
> translation of an account in Italian of a voyage to the East Indies by
> Cæsar Frederick, a merchant of Venice, probably borrowed from, or
> infl. by, Chinese (Cantonese) tai fung "a great wind," from tu "big"
> + feng "wind;" name given to violent cyclonic storms in the China
> seas. A third possibility is tufan, a word in Arabic, Persian and
> Hindi meaning "big cyclonic storm" (and the source of Port. tufao ),
> which may be from Gk. typhon but commonly is said to be a noun of
> action from Arabic tafa "to turn round."
> Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
>
>
> If you ask me, the probability is for arabic tufan for the portuguese
> version and cantonese tai fung for the english one. The english one
> having been folk etymologised as coming from greek tufwn, which in
> latin is typhon, thus getting its <y>.
>
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