Did you know word 'Cyclone' originated in India, but from Which City?

The devastating winds and heavy rainfall gripped the coastal parts of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh on December 9th 2022. The cyclone Mandous, which falls under the category of severe cyclone is set to cross the coast starting midnight. India Meteorological Department (IMD), has predicted heavy rainfall over several parts of the coastal states as the cyclone over the Bay of Bengal is expected to cross the coast between the Union Territory of Puducherry, and Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

You can read the latest update about Mandous on our News website called Oneindia.com. Well, let's take a step back and get into the History of Cyclone. I hope you will find this interesting as the term Cyclone's history is well connected with India.

Start with 9th December 1807

Exactly 215 years ago on the same day, which means 9th December 1807, a severe cyclone hit the city of Madras and made a huge amount of destruction in just two days. The cyclone on 23rd April 1859 lasted for three days. Not only that, another cyclone formed on 12th December 1884 in Nagapatanam, and crossed the coast only on 19th December. The cyclone lasted for 7 days. This means cyclones usually have a life of 2-3 days, but it can extend up to 7 days.

Birth of the word Cyclone

So, this was the brief about the life of Cyclone, now again we will go back and read about the birth of the word Cyclone. Did you know that the word "Cyclone" is originated in India? Yes! it is and the city where this word first sounded was Culcutta, presently known as Kolkata.

According to research done by Dr. Kamala Devi, from Bharathidasan University, The word "Cyclone" surfaced in the Indian city of Calcutta in the mind of an Englishman, when he was serving as President of the Marine Court of Calcutta. His name was Henry Piddington. He was the sea Captain, studying the stormy weather of the Indian Ocean. He did a deep study of the devastating tropical storm of December 1789 that inundated the coastal town of Coringa with 3 monstrous storm waves that killed more than 20,000 people. While presenting his research, the Asiatic Society of Bengal around 1840 Piddington described that 1789 storm as a 'Cyclone'.

Meaning of Cyclone

Word 'Cyclone' is derived from the Greek word 'Kyklon' which means moving in a circle, like the 'Coil of the snake'. This spiral shape of the cloud bands was first noticed by Piddington on an examination of several cloud and wind reports from ships that encountered cyclonic storms in the Bay of Bengal. It was he who named these atmospheric systems cyclones. Piddington introduced the word in 1848 in the mariners' book, The Sailors Horn Book for the law of storms whose purpose was to explain to mariners the theory and practical use of the Law of Storms.

In 1875, the International Meteorological Organisation adopted the term Cyclone to describe the low-pressure system.

Different names of cyclones

Cyclones occur in different parts of the tropical oceans. They bear different names. There is no difference between hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons.

The word 'typhoon', is used today in the Northwest Pacific. The word was derived from the Chinese term táifēng, and taifū in Japanese, has an independent origin traceable variously to hongthai, going back to Song (960-1278) and Yuan (1260-1341) dynasties. Urdu, Persian and Arabic toofan which in turn originates from Greek tuphon, a monster in Greek mythology responsible for hot winds.

In the North Atlantic they are called Hurricanes. The word 'hurricane' originally came from the natives of the West Indies, the early navigators while following the time of Columbus, the word was variously given as 'aracan' 'huriranvucan' 'Urican' 'huracan' etc. The word hurricane started as a name of a native Caribbean Amerindian storm god.

In the Indian Ocean they have been known as cyclones.

In Hindi it is called Chakravaat, in Tamil it is called 'Puyal', 'Kaduvalli' 'Suravali', 'Suravari', 'sura' means puyal, 'perungkarru', 'peruvalli', chithiraisulzhi', 'suzhalkarru', 'vali' means wind.