Etymologically
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storm

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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
  • 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