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tornado

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Etymology and origin of the English word tornado

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1556
Borrowed from
Spanish tronada
Ultimate origin
Latin tonō

Pronunciation

  • /tɔː(ɹ)ˈneɪ.dəʊ/[1]
  • US: /tɔɹˈneɪ.doʊ/[1]

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Spanish tronada (“thunderstorm”) in an altered form,[2][3][4] from tronar (“to thunder”), from Latin tonō (“to thunder”).[3][5][4] The earliest English form, ternado, exists in neither Spanish nor Portuguese, and the OED takes it for a blundered adaptation of the Spanish noun.[2][6] From the 1620s the spellings turnado and tournado and the modern one show the influence of tornar (“to turn”), from tornō (“to turn on a lathe”),[3][7][5] and of the Spanish past participle tornado (“turned”);[4][8] Ayto calls this a piece of English folk etymology.[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A violent thunderstorm of the tropical Atlantic, with torrential rain and sudden gusts, a navigators' term: 1556 according to Merriam-Webster and Barnhart,[4][7] 1589 in the OED, in an account of William Towrson's voyage printed by Hakluyt.[2]

Semantic evolution

In the 17th century the word also named the season of such storms (1634 to 1698).[2] From 1626 it also named a rotating storm on the west coast of Africa.[2] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as "a hurricane; a whirlwind".[10] The destructive funnel-shaped storm of the Mississippi region is described from 1849, by Charles Lyell,[2][3] and the figurative sense, a violent outburst or a person who acts like one, from 1818.[2]

Timeline

  • 1556 – ternado, a tropical thunderstorm.[4][7]
  • 1589 – first OED quotation (Hakluyt).[2]
  • 1620s – the spelling tornado.[3]
  • 1626 – a rotating storm off West Africa.[2]
  • 1818 – figurative use.[2]
  • 1849 – a funnel-cloud storm in the US.[2][3]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A violently rotating column of air that reaches the ground from a thunderstorm, usually seen as a funnel-shaped cloud and moving along a narrow path.
  2. A violent squall with a thunderstorm, on the coast of West Africa.
  3. (figurative) A violently active or destructive person or thing.
  4. (archaic) A tropical thunderstorm.

Word family

  • tornadic
  • tornadolike

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  7. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  9. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Tornado.” Etymologically, 22 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/tornado. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·