typhoon

The common name given to the tropical cyclone that forms in the western part of the North Pacific. Among the inhabited areas periodically affected by typhoons are Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan, the coasts of China, and Micronesia. In Greek mythology, Typhon was the last son of Gaia (the mother goddess of the Earth), whom she bore with Tartarus (the god of the abyss). His name comes from the ancient Greek Typhos, meaning "smoke." This term - Latinized as typhon - in turn influenced a Persian word from which various archaic forms derived, both in Chinese (tai fung), and Urdu (t.ūfān), which gave their name to the meteorological phenomenon.