daniilk

Очень рад, что существуют разные версии происхождения слова "тайфун". Только странно, что в Азии появился персонах греческой мифологии. Кроме того, по-японски так и звучит "тайфун". Скорее всего это японское слово.
Хотя японцы, конечно, многие слова взяли из китайского.

Думаю все версии имеют право на существование просто потому, что точно мы не узнаем. Странного здесь на самом деле нет, Азия не отдельный континент, не ограничивается Китаем и вела активную сухопутную и морскую торговлю с европейскими и арабскими странами. Посмотрите на карту: сколько мусульман живет, например, в Индонезии. Я копнул чуть глубже, похоже речь идет о конвергенции нескольких похожих по звучанию слов возникших в разных частях света.

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Word History : The history of typhoon presents a perfect example of the long journey that many words made in coming to English. It traveled from Greece to Arabia to India, and also arose independently in China, before assuming its current form in our language. The Greek word tuphōn, used both as the name of the father of the winds and a common noun meaning "whirlwind, typhoon," was borrowed into Arabic during the Middle Ages, when Arabic learning both preserved and expanded the classical heritage and passed it on to Europe and other parts of the world. Ṭūfān, the Arabic version of the Greek word, passed into languages spoken in India, where Arabic-speaking Muslim invaders had settled in the 11th century. Thus the descendant of the Arabic word, passing into English (first recorded in 1588) through an Indian language and appearing in English in forms such as touffon and tufan, originally referred specifically to a severe storm in India. The modern form of typhoon was influenced by a borrowing from the Cantonese variety of Chinese, namely the word taaîfung, and respelled to make it look more like Greek. Taaîfung, meaning literally "great wind," was coincidentally similar to the Arabic borrowing and is first recorded in English guise as tuffoon in 1699. The various forms coalesced and finally became typhoon.
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typhoon
the modern word represents a coincidence and convergence of at least two unrelated words of similar sound and sense. Tiphon "violent storm, whirlwind, tornado" is recorded from 1555, from Gk. typhon "whirlwind," personified as a giant, father of the winds, perhaps from typhein "to smoke." The meaning "cyclone, violent hurricane of India or the China Seas" (1588) is first recorded in T. Hickock's translation of an account in Italian of a voyage to the East Indies by Cæsar Frederick, a merchant of Venice, probably borrowed from, or infl. by, Chinese (Cantonese) tai fung "a great wind," from tu "big" + feng "wind;" name given to violent cyclonic storms in the China seas. A third possibility is tufan, a word in Arabic, Persian and Hindi meaning "big cyclonic storm" (and the source of Port. tufao ), which may be from Gk. typhon but commonly is said to be a noun of action from Arabic tafa "to turn round."