Where does the word “heatwave” come from, which seems set to be the word of the year? According to science, it appeared around the year 1500. Which means it’s not new. But definitely from the day before yesterday. Already in 1500, the heatwave bothered us so much that we thought of inventing the word to go with it. But then, why “heatwave” and not “hot ahead”, for example?
And there, hang on. Imagine that “canicule” comes from canicula, which, in Latin, means “little female dog”, after the name given to the star Sirius (Sirius, for its part, meaning “burning”) in the constellation Canis Major (I hope you follow). So you have the little dog called Canicula and the Big Dog called Sirius.
Pliny the Elder gets involved
In short: a heatwave is terrible weather and it burns, unlike extreme cold which is also terrible weather but doesn’t burn. As for whether we prefer to be too hot or too cold in dog weather, neither if you ask me.
To refresh our memory (which really needs it), Wikipedia cites, well before the year 1500, Pliny the Elder, who wrote: “As for the heatwave, who does not know that when it rises, it ignites the heat of the sun? » And so, great heat. All of this, all in all, seems a little confusing to me. Or maybe it’s Sirius’ little dog that’s messing with my brain. Come on, give him a drink, and let’s not talk about it anymore.
