cyclone

Etymology

It was coined in 1848 by Henry Piddington,^[2][3][4] a British meteorologist and East India Company official,^[5][3] to describe the storm of December 1789 at Coringa in India.^[3] It is from Ancient Greek κυκλῶν (kuklôn, “moving in a circle, whirling round”),^[3][4][6][7] the present participle of κυκλόω (kuklóō, “to move in a circle, whirl”),^[4][7] from κύκλος (kúklos, “circle, wheel”),^[2][3][7][8] the source of cycle.^[7] Etymonline takes kúklos back to Proto-Indo-European *kʷel- (“to revolve, move round”), the root of wheel.^[3][9] Piddington's own account is vague: the OED notes that the sense he gave points to κύκλωμα (kúklōma, “a wheel; the coil of a serpent”), and an early variant cyclome supports this.^[2][10] Merriam-Webster, Hoad and the Oxford Dictionary of English derive the word from kúklōma, the last calling the change from m to n unexplained,^[9][10][11] and Dictionary.com thinks he confused the two Greek words.^[5] Barnhart explains the name by the circular course of the winds.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A general term for any storm or atmospheric disturbance in which the wind blows in a circle or whirl: 1848, in Piddington's Sailor's Horn-book.^[2][3][4]

Semantic evolution

Piddington meant the word as a general name for all whirling storms,^[2] and the general use is now obsolete.^[12] It was applied from 1856 to a destructive hurricane or tornado of small diameter,^[2][3] and in the Midwestern United States cyclone still often means a tornado, as in the cyclone cellar used for shelter.^[9][12] Meteorologists gave it a stricter sense by 1875: a system of winds turning around a centre of low pressure, which itself moves, a depression.^[2][13][12] In 1868 the word was used of a whirling storm in the sun's atmosphere; since 1898 it has also named a machine that separates solids from a stream of gas or liquid by centrifugal force.^[2][12] The adjective cyclonic is recorded from 1860.^[4]

Timeline

• 1848 – coined by Piddington for any storm with circular winds.^[2][3][4]
• 1856 – a destructive hurricane or tornado.^[2][3]
• 1860 – cyclonic.^[4]
• 1868 – a whirling storm on the sun.^[2]
• 1875 – in meteorology, a system of winds around a moving centre of low pressure.^[2]
• 1898 – a centrifugal separator.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A system of winds turning around a centre of low atmospheric pressure, anticlockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern; a depression.^[9][13][12]
2. A violent tropical storm, a hurricane or typhoon, especially one in the Indian Ocean or the South Pacific: The cyclone flattened the coastal villages.^[13][9]
3. (chiefly Midwestern US) A tornado.^[9][2]
4. A machine that separates solids from a flow of gas or liquid by centrifugal force.^[2][12]

Word family

• cyclonic
• cyclonically
• mesocyclone
• anticyclone
• cyclone cellar
• tropical cyclone
• extratropical cyclone

Related words

• cycle
• wheel
• encyclopedia

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins