(With all due respect to the victims of Hurricane Katrina), why are they called "hurricanes" in the Atlantic and "typhoons" in the Pacific? They are same types of storms.
7 comments:
Anonymous
said...
I don't even want to hazard a guess. But I'll check to see if you get any answers.
Both are tropical cyclones but 'hurricane' is a word of Spanish origin and 'typhoon' has its roots both in Chinese and (by adoption) in Arabic. Interestingly, during WWII the British RAF used both words for types of fighter aircraft.
Snake, you and I seem to be thinking along the same lines. I was already aware of the derivations of the terms. My question was why use two separate terms for the same phenomena instead of one single term as Dr. Max suggested.
Dr. Max, I think you are on to something. Would an acronym (RBFWRS) work better, perhaps?
7 comments:
I don't even want to hazard a guess. But I'll check to see if you get any answers.
Both are tropical cyclones but 'hurricane' is a word of Spanish origin and 'typhoon' has its roots both in Chinese and (by adoption) in Arabic. Interestingly, during WWII the British RAF used both words for types of fighter aircraft.
anonymous beat me to it!
Why make life easy when it can be complicated?
I knew that stuff about Spanish and Chinese and Arabic derivations; I was wrestling with something deeper.
Snake, you and I seem to be thinking along the same lines. I was already aware of the derivations of the terms. My question was why use two separate terms for the same phenomena instead of one single term as Dr. Max suggested.
Dr. Max, I think you are on to something. Would an acronym (RBFWRS) work better, perhaps?
Dr. Max too funny
Post a Comment