• n. [气象] 台风

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。

typhoon

typhoon: [16] A typhoon is etymologically a ‘great wind’. The word was adapted from Cantonese Chinese daai feng ‘great wind’, its form no doubt influenced by Greek Tūphón, father of the winds in Greek mythology (his name was derived from the verb túphein ‘smoke’, which also produced túphos ‘smoke’, hence ‘fever causing delusion’, source of English stew, typhoid, and typhus).

typhoon (n.)

Tiphon "violent storm, whirlwind, tornado," 1550s, from Greek typhon "whirlwind," personified as a giant, father of the winds, perhaps from typhein "to smoke" (see typhus), but according to Watkins from PIE *dheub- "deep, hollow," via notion of "monster from the depths." The meaning "cyclone, violent hurricane of India or the China Seas" is first recorded 1588 in Thomas Hickock's translation of an account in Italian of a voyage to the East Indies by Caesar Frederick, a merchant of Venice:

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."

The Arabic word sometimes is said to be from Greek typhon, but other sources consider it purely Semitic, though the Greek word might have influenced the form of the word in English. Al-tufan occurs several times in the Koran for "a flood or storm" and also for Noah's Flood. Chinese (Cantonese) tai fung "a great wind" also might have influenced the form or sense of the word in English, and that term and the Indian one may have had some mutual influence; toofan still means "big storm" in India.

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"]

1. The typhoon sank a ferry, drowning over 200 people.

那场台风使一条渡船沉没, 淹死200多人.

来自《简明英汉词典》

2. A typhoon is now approaching Hong Kong.

台风现正逼近香港.

来自《简明英汉词典》

3. The typhoon uprooted numerous trees.

台风把许多树连根拔起.

来自《简明英汉词典》

4. In May a typhoon hit the Philippines.

5月,台风袭击了菲律宾.

来自《简明英汉词典》

5. The typhoon hit the coastal areas.

台风侵袭沿海地区.

来自《现代汉英综合大词典》