hurricane [M16th] When Christopher Columbus arrived in the Caribbean in 1492 he encountered the Arawak. These peaceful people did not long survive the coming of the Spanish, and are thought to have died out as a result of the diseases carried by the Europeans and attacks by their aggressive neighbours, the Carib. One part of their culture lives on in the term hurricane for a violent storm, specifically a tropical cyclone in the Caribbean. The word came into English via Spanish huracán from the name of the Arawak god of the storm, Hurakan. See also typhoon, tornado.