Chinese

Japanese

Etymology

Ultimately from Chinese 大風, but precisely how it entered Japanese is unclear.^[1] For more, see typhoon.

Pronunciation

• On'yomi
• (Tokyo) たいふ​う [tàífúꜜù] (Nakadaka - [3])^[2]
• IPA^(key): [ta̠iɸɯᵝː]

Noun

台風 ‎(hiragana たいふう, romaji taifū)

1. a typhoon
2. a storm; a cyclone; a hurricane; willy-willy

References

1. ↑ Tai Whan Kim, The Portuguese Element in Japanese: A Critical Survey (1976): 16. taifū 'typhoon' Probably in view of semantic association Dalgado linked the Japanese taifū with Portuguese tufão. He is uncertain as to the immediate source of the Japanese form. There also exists in Japanese anpother form taifūn, not cited by Dalgado. The history of taifū and taifūn is as interesting and intricate as Portuguese tufão and English typhoon, which underlies Japanese taifūn.
2. ↑ 1998, NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK, ISBN 978-4-14-011112-3