Hurricane word origin
Below is some information I found on the origin of the word Hurricane;
The word Hurricane comes from 'Hurican', the Carib god of evil which has its roots in a name from Mayan folklore, Hurakan. Hurakan was the ancient Mayan god of wind and storm. He was a creator god who breathed on the water as wind to dry it out and form the land. When the gods became angry with the first human beings, Hurukan unleashed the deluge which destroyed them in a Flood. Hurakan means "one-legged".
See
http://www.deliriumsrealm.com/delirium/mythology/hurakan.asp
Besides the Mayans and the Carib tribes who had variations of the hurricane word. The Arawaks and the Tainos also had their versions
The word hurricane is believed to have been derived from the Spanish word "huracan" of the West Indies Arawak-speaking Indians. Other possible derivatives are: Aracan, Hurranvucan, Urican and Furacan. The Spanish letter F in Aragon, Spain was gradually being replaced by letter H of Castile in the late 1400s.
From http://www.keyshistory.org/hurricanes.html
Also this:
A major threat to sailing in the West Indies are hurricanes. The name is derived from the Taino word huracan. In Taino imagery, the Zemi (or deity) who controls huracans is depicted as a bodiless circular head with two hands spiraling off it in opposite directions -- a simple expression of the counter-clockwise action at the center of a hurricane.
From http://www.timespub.tc/Natural History/Archive/Fall2003/spanishtrans.htm
So as you can see it is not very clear where exactly the word comes from. It is my opinion that the Mayans were credited as they were the only pre-Columbian culture to have any written records. What they actually wrote with was hieroglyphics which have recently been interpreted.
The Caribs were well known for the rape and pillaging and their mobile nature and could have helped spread the significance of this word. Arawaks and Tainos have the same continental South American origin.
To conclude the word hurricane has no proven origin and should be in my opinion be considered an Amerindian word. The Tainos were the first to relate to Columbus?s men this word, as chronicled by them, and that is what has made it the international recognized word.
Below is some information I found on the origin of the word Hurricane;
The word Hurricane comes from 'Hurican', the Carib god of evil which has its roots in a name from Mayan folklore, Hurakan. Hurakan was the ancient Mayan god of wind and storm. He was a creator god who breathed on the water as wind to dry it out and form the land. When the gods became angry with the first human beings, Hurukan unleashed the deluge which destroyed them in a Flood. Hurakan means "one-legged".
See
http://www.deliriumsrealm.com/delirium/mythology/hurakan.asp
Besides the Mayans and the Carib tribes who had variations of the hurricane word. The Arawaks and the Tainos also had their versions
The word hurricane is believed to have been derived from the Spanish word "huracan" of the West Indies Arawak-speaking Indians. Other possible derivatives are: Aracan, Hurranvucan, Urican and Furacan. The Spanish letter F in Aragon, Spain was gradually being replaced by letter H of Castile in the late 1400s.
From http://www.keyshistory.org/hurricanes.html
Also this:
A major threat to sailing in the West Indies are hurricanes. The name is derived from the Taino word huracan. In Taino imagery, the Zemi (or deity) who controls huracans is depicted as a bodiless circular head with two hands spiraling off it in opposite directions -- a simple expression of the counter-clockwise action at the center of a hurricane.
From http://www.timespub.tc/Natural History/Archive/Fall2003/spanishtrans.htm
So as you can see it is not very clear where exactly the word comes from. It is my opinion that the Mayans were credited as they were the only pre-Columbian culture to have any written records. What they actually wrote with was hieroglyphics which have recently been interpreted.
The Caribs were well known for the rape and pillaging and their mobile nature and could have helped spread the significance of this word. Arawaks and Tainos have the same continental South American origin.
To conclude the word hurricane has no proven origin and should be in my opinion be considered an Amerindian word. The Tainos were the first to relate to Columbus?s men this word, as chronicled by them, and that is what has made it the international recognized word.