For today’s Weird Word Wednesday, let’s look at three words related to weather: Haboob, snowpocalypse and derecho.
Here’s what www.dictionary.com says about these words:
Pronunciation: [ huh-boob ]
Part of speech: Noun
Definition: A thick dust storm or sandstorm that blows in the deserts of North Africa and Arabia or on the plains of India.
Language origin: Arabic
Pronunciation: [ snoh-pok-uh-lips ]
Part of speech: Noun
Definition: A word that is a blend of the words “snow” and “apocalypse” and that means a major winter storm.
Language origin: Slang
Pronunciation: [ duh-rey-choh ]
Part of speech: Noun
Definition: A widespread and severe windstorm that moves rapidly along a fairly straight path and is associated with bands of rapidly moving thunderstorms.
Language origin: Spanish
On the plains of West Texas where I grew up, we could have all three in the same day. We’d just call it “Texas Weather”.