来自希腊语 typhon,旋风,可能来自 typhein,冒烟,词源同 typhus,或来自 PIE*dheub,深的,地 底的,词源同 deep.后用于指热带风暴台风最早见于 16 世纪在南亚和东亚附近开拓殖民地的 葡萄牙人的描述,据说是来自阿拉伯语 tufan,怒吼的风,旋转的风暴,可能为拟声词,也有 说法是该阿拉伯词原为借自希腊语 typhon,旋风。但同时,词义和拼写又同时受到汉语台风 的影响。令人抓狂的是,汉语台风在词源上同样说不清楚,较常见的说法有来自广东话大风 变音,或因从台湾海峡进入大陆,简称台风,还有一种说法就是荷兰人占领台湾后,借用自 希腊语 typhon,旋风,最后普通话翻译为台风。更多参照百度百科。
concerning which Touffon ye are to vnderstand, that in the East Indies often times, there are not stormes as in other countreys; but euery 10. or 12. yeeres there are such tempests and stormes, that it is a thing incredible, but to those that haue seene it, neither do they know certainly what yeere they wil come. ["The voyage and trauell of M. Caesar Fredericke, Marchant of Venice, into the East India, and beyond the Indies"]This sense of the word, in reference to titanic storms in the East Indies, first appears in Europe in Portuguese in the mid-16th century. It aparently is from tufan, a word in Arabic, Persian, and Hindi meaning "big cyclonic storm." Yule ["Hobson-Jobson," London, 1903] writes that "the probability is that Vasco [da Gama] and his followers got the tufao ... direct from the Arab pilots."
From the thighs downward he was nothing but coiled serpents, and his arms which, when he spread them out, reached a hundred leagues in either direction, had countless serpents' heads instead of hands. His brutish ass-head touched the stars, his vast wings darkened the sun, fire flashed from his eyes, and flaming rocks hurtled from his mouth. [Robert Graves, "Typhon," in "The Greek Myths"]
来自《简明英汉词典》
来自《简明英汉词典》
来自《简明英汉词典》
来自《简明英汉词典》
来自《现代汉英综合大词典》