1881.—"The final n in Tuticorin was added for some such euphonic reason as turned Kochchi into Cochin and Kumari into Comorin. The meaning of the name Tūttukkuḍi is said to be 'the town where the wells get filled up'; from tūttu (properly tūrttu), 'to fill up a well,' and kuḍi, 'a place of habitation, a town.' This derivation, whether the true one or not, has at least the merit of being appropriate...."—Bp. Caldwell, Hist. of Tinnevelly, 75.
TYCONNA, TYEKANA, s. A room in the basement or cellarage, or dug in the ground, in which it has in some parts of India been the practice to pass the hottest part of the day during the hottest season of the year. Pers. tah-khāna, 'nether-house,' i.e. 'subterraneous apartment.' ["In the centre of the court is an elevated platform, the roof of a subterraneous chamber called a zeera zemeon, whither travellers retire during the great heats of the summer" (Morier, Journey through Persia, &c., 81). Another name for such a place is sardābeh (Burton, Ar. Nights, i. 314).]
1663.—"... in these hot Countries, to entitle an House to the name of Good and Fair it is required it should be ... furnish'd also with good Cellars with great Flaps to stir the Air, for reposing in the fresh Air from 12 till 4 or 5 of the Clock, when the Air of these Cellars begins to be hot and stuffing...."—Bernier, E.T. 79; [ed. Constable, 247].
c. 1763.—"The throng that accompanied that minister proved so very great that the floor of the house, which happened to have a Tah-Qhana, and possibly was at that moment under a secret influence, gave way, and the body, the Vizir, and all his company fell into the apartment underneath."—Seir Mutaqherin, iii. 19.
1842.—"The heat at Jellalabad from the end of April was tremendous, 105° to 110° in the shade. Everybody who could do so lived in underground chambers called tykhánás. Broadfoot dates a letter 'from my den six feet under ground.'"—Mrs. Mackenzie, Storms and Sunshine of a Soldier's Life, i. 298. [The same author in her Life in the Mission (i. 330) writes taikhana.]
TUXALL, TAKSAUL, s. The Mint. Hind. ṭaksāl, from Skt. ṭankaśālā, 'coin-hall.'
[1757.—"Our provisions were regularly sent us from the Dutch Tanksal...."—Holwell's Narr. of Attack on Calcutta, p. 34; in Wheeler, Early Records, 248.
[1811.—"The Ticksali, or superintendent of the mint...."—Kirkpatrick, Nepaul, 201.]
TYPHOON, s. A tornado or cyclone-wind; a sudden storm, a '[nor-wester]' (q.v.). Sir John Barrow (see Autobiog. 57) ridicules "learned antiquarians" for fancying that the Chinese took typhoon from the Egyptian Typhon, the word being, according to him, simply the Chinese syllables, ta-fung, 'Great Wind.' His ridicule is misplaced. With a monosyllabic language like the Chinese (as we have remarked elsewhere) you may construct a plausible etymology, to meet the requirements of the sound alone, from anything and for anything. And as there is no evidence that the word is in Chinese use at all, it would perhaps be as fair a suggestion to derive it from the English "tough 'un." Mr. Giles, who seems to think that the balance of evidence is in favour of this (Barrow's) etymology, admits a serious objection to be that the Chinese have special names for the typhoon, and rarely, if ever, speak of it vaguely as a 'great wind.' The fact is that very few words of the class used by seafaring and trading people, even when they refer to Chinese objects, are directly taken from the Chinese language. E.g. Mandarin, pagoda, chop, cooly, tutenague;—none of these are Chinese. And the probability is that Vasco and his followers got the tufão, which our sailors made into touffon and then into typhoon, as they got the monção which our sailors made into monsoon, direct from the Arab pilots.
The Arabic word is ṭūfān, which is used habitually in India for a sudden and violent storm. Lane defines it as meaning 'an overpowering rain, ... Noah's flood,' etc. And there can be little doubt of its identity with the Greek τυφῶν or τυφών. [But Burton (Ar. Nights, iii. 257) alleges that it is pure Arabic, and comes from the root ṭauf, 'going round.'] This word τυφών (the etymologists say, from τυφώ, 'I raise smoke') was applied to a demon-giant or Titan, and either directly from the etym. meaning or from the name of the Titan (as in India a whirlwind is called 'a [Devil] or [Pisachee]') to a 'waterspout,' and thence to analogous stormy phenomena. 'Waterspout' seems evidently the meaning of τυφών in the Meteorologica of Aristotle (γίγνεται μὲν οὖν τυφών ... κ.τ.λ.) iii. 1 (the passage is exceedingly difficult to render clearly); and also in the quotation which we give from Aulus Gellius. The word may have come to the Arabs either in maritime intercourse, or through the translations of Aristotle. It occurs (al-ṭūfān) several times in the Koran; thus in sura, vii. 134, for a flood or storm, one of the plagues of Egypt, and in s. xxix. 14 for the Deluge.