You say Hurricane, Super-Xpat say Typhoon

And Australians say Willy-willy.

This weekend seems to be particularly eventful weather-wise. In USA Texas, Hurricane Ike. In Taiwan (look at the bottom of your electronics kids), Typhoon Sinlaku. And since even Super-Xpat here in Taipei cannot belittle 184km/hr typhoon breath or surf two meter waves, Super-Xpat decided to do some research.

First, Super-Xpat found that Hurricanes and Typhoons are essentially the same thing, except one forms west of the date line (no not the news show), one east. Both require winds above 74 miles per hour (119km/hr for the enlightened), heavy rains and so on.

But more interesting to Super-Xpat is the etymology.

Well, first, according to the online etymology dictionary, "Hurricane" was first used in:

1555, a partially deformed adoptation from Spanish huracan, furacan, from an Arawakan (W. Indies) word. In Portugal, it became furacão. Confusion of initial h- and f- common in Spanish in these years...

...OED records some 39 different spellings, mostly from the late 16c., including forcane, herrycano, harrycain, hurlecane. Modern form became frequent from 1650, established after 1688. Shakespeare uses hurricano ("King Lear," "Troilus and Cressida"), but in reference to waterspouts.

Then, 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 [颱風] "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."

Then there is the term "Cyclone". Super-Xpat feels all three are very cool... and can't decide which to use... perhaps Cycuriphoon? Tyriclone? Huritaiclonane?