storm

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /stɔːm/, US /stɔːrm/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old English storm (“tempest; onrush, attack; tumult”),^[2][3] from Proto-Germanic *sturmaz (“storm”),^[2][3][4] the source also of Old Norse stormr, Dutch storm and German Sturm.^[2][3] Etymonline derives it from Proto-Indo-European *(s)twer- (“to turn, whirl”);^[2] Barnhart, Hoad and Merriam-Webster connect it with Old English styrian “to move”, the source of stir.^[3][4][5] Old French estour “onset, tumult” and Italian stormo “a fight” are Germanic loans.^[2] The verb is from the noun.^[2][3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A violent disturbance of the atmosphere: about 725, in Beowulf, according to Barnhart;^[3] about 825 in the OED.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The figurative senses, disturbance in civil, political or domestic life, begin in late Old English,^[2][4] as does “a hurled shower of objects”.^[2] A tumultuous onrush, as of tears, is from about 1600.^[2] The verb, “to rage, be violent”, of the wind, is from about 1400,^[2] 1380 in Chaucer's Boethius according to Barnhart.^[3] The military sense, “to attack and take a place by scaling walls and forcing gates”, is by the 1640s,^[2] and to take by storm from the 1680s.^[2] “To rush angrily” is by 1837, said to be from the military sense.^[2] A storm in a teacup has earlier forms from 1590.^[7] The storm window is attested from 1824,^[2] the storm door by 1872,^[2] and up a storm is American, from 1946.^[2] In Scotland a storm is also a snowstorm or a spell of hard frosty weather.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 725 – a tempest.^[3]
• late Old English – a disturbance, figuratively.^[2]
• c. 1400 – verb, to rage.^[2]
• c. 1600 – an onrush of feeling.^[2]
• 1640s – to take by assault.^[2]
• 1837 – to rush angrily.^[2]
• 1946 – up a storm.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A disturbance of the atmosphere with strong winds and rain, snow or other precipitation, often with thunder and lightning.
2. A wind of force 10 or 11 on the Beaufort scale.
3. A heavy shower of objects, as bullets.
4. A violent outburst: a storm of protest.
5. A violent military assault on a fortified place.

Verb

1. To blow forcefully, or rain or snow heavily.
2. To be very angry; to rage.
3. To move violently or angrily: stormed out.
4. To attack suddenly and forcefully.

Word family

• stormlike
• hailstorm
• stormbound
• stormless
• stormproof
• stormy
• unstormed
• barnstorm

Related words

• stir
• stour
• sturdy

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press