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1word1dayborasco (bo-RAS-koh) or borasca (bo-RAS-kah) - n., a Mediterranean squall, especially a thunderstorm.
What with winds and fires being of current local interest, I though it time for a stormy word. This is not necessarily restricted to on or around the Mediterranean, but it does not seem to be used often (at least in English) elsewhere. Borrowed either from Spanish borrasca or Italian burrasca (don't ask me how the typical gender changed in transmission), and while here it gets muddled with French bourrasque also in the mix, ultimately they all derive from Vulgar Latin borras, a form of Boreas, from Greek Boreas, the personification of the north wind (whose ultimate Proto-Indoeuropean root is *gʷorʰ-, mountain -- can you guess what terrain is north of Greece?). Note that in English, a borrasca with a double -rr- is unrelated, being an obscure term for a played-out mine.
We were nearly back to harbor when the borasco caught up and capsized us.
---L.
What with winds and fires being of current local interest, I though it time for a stormy word. This is not necessarily restricted to on or around the Mediterranean, but it does not seem to be used often (at least in English) elsewhere. Borrowed either from Spanish borrasca or Italian burrasca (don't ask me how the typical gender changed in transmission), and while here it gets muddled with French bourrasque also in the mix, ultimately they all derive from Vulgar Latin borras, a form of Boreas, from Greek Boreas, the personification of the north wind (whose ultimate Proto-Indoeuropean root is *gʷorʰ-, mountain -- can you guess what terrain is north of Greece?). Note that in English, a borrasca with a double -rr- is unrelated, being an obscure term for a played-out mine.
We were nearly back to harbor when the borasco caught up and capsized us.
---L.
