Language Matters | In Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Helene’s aftermath, where word for big storms comes from
Drawn from indigenous Caribbean languages, ‘hurricano’ appeared in Shakespeare’s King Lear and soon afterwards swapped its final ‘o’ for ‘e’
Hurricane Milton, which recently devastated Florida, was the ninth hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season.
Hurricanes, together with cyclones and typhoons, are some of the most destructive weather phenomena, comprising intense rotating storm systems of clouds and thunderstorms which originate over warm tropical waters, with a typical diameter of 120 to 300 miles (190 to 480 kilometres) and winds exceeding 119km/h (74mph).
The overarching term used by meteorologists to describes these storms around the world is tropical cyclone, but the more familiar names are in fact region-specific names which have a history in the local populations’ cultures, and encounters.
Hurricanes are tropical cyclones located in the North Atlantic and the eastern/central North Pacific oceans, often affecting the United States’ east coast and the Caribbean.
It is of little surprise, then, that the word’s origins lie in languages of the indigenous peoples there – the Taíno, a subgroup of the Arawak people, original inhabitants of the Greater Antilles.
