Pepe Alas posted: " The country is experiencing monsoon rains for the past couple of days, a familiar fixture for the months of July through September. Locally, monsoon is known as "habagat". But what, really, is habagat? According to the "Vocabulario de" EL FILIPINISMO
The country is experiencing monsoon rains for the past couple of days, a familiar fixture for the months of July through September. Locally, monsoon is known as "habagat".
But what, really, is habagat?
According to the "Vocabulario de la Lengua Tagala" published in 1860, habagat means gale or strong winds ("bendaval" in Spanish; modern spelling is "vendaval"). It can also mean —but quite rarely— west ("oeste" in Spanish). No wonder meteorologists refer to this phenomenon we are experiencing now as southwest monsoon.
Another entry in this same dictionary describes a person who falls ill because of habagat winds as "táong habagatin".
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