"violent storm," late 13c., from Old French tempeste "storm; commotion, battle; epidemic, plague" (11c.), from Vulgar Latin *tempesta, from Latin tempestas "a storm, commotion; weather, season; occasion, time," related to tempus "time, season" (see temporal).

Latin sense evolution is from "period of time" to "period of weather," to "bad weather" to "storm." Words for "weather" originally were words for "time" in languages from Russia to Brittany. Figurative sense of "violent commotion" in English is recorded from early 14c. Tempest in a teapot attested from 1818; the image in other forms is older, such as storm in a creambowl (1670s).

"degraded and bestial man," from the name of Shakespeare's character in "The Tempest" (1610), which is from a version of cannibal with -n- and -l- interchanged found in Hakluyt's "Voyages" (1599).

pole used in housebuilding, especially as an object tossed in the Highland games, 1510s, from Gaelic cabar "pole, spar," cognate with Irish cabar "lath," Welsh ceibr "beam, rafter."

mid-15c., "to lift or throw with a sudden movement," of uncertain origin, possibly from a Scandinavian source (compare dialectal Norwegian tossa "to strew, spread"). Food preparation sense (with reference to salad, etc.) is recorded from 1723. Intransitive sense "be restless; throw oneself about" is from 1550s. Related: Tossed; tossing.

Old English floterian "to flutter (of birds), to fly before, flicker, float to and fro, be tossed by waves," frequentative of flotian "to float" (see float (v.)). Meaning "throw (someone) into confusion" is from 1660s. Related: Fluttered; fluttering. As a noun, "quick, irregular motion," from 1640s; meaning "state of excitement" is 1740s. Flutterpate "flighty person" is from 1894.

late 14c., from Late Latin tempestuosus "stormy, turbulent," from Latin tempestas, tempestus "storm, commotion; weather, season; occasion, time," related to tempus "time, season" (see temporal). For sense development, see tempest. The figurative sense is older in English; literal sense is from c. 1500. Related: Tempestuously; tempestuousness.

1690s, "curved line, a continuous bending without angles," from curve (v.). With reference to the female figure (usually plural, curves), from 1862; in reference to statistical graphs, by 1854; as a type of baseball pitch that does not move in a straight line, from 1879. An old name for it was slow. "Slows are balls simply tossed to the bat with a line of delivery so curved as to make them almost drop on the home base." [Chadwick's Base Ball Manual, 1874]

"figure of speech consisting of omission of conjunctions," 1580s, from Latin, from Greek asyndeton, neuter of asyndetos "unconnected," from a- "not, without" (see a- (3)) + syndetos, from syndein "to bind together," from syn- "together" (see syn-) + dein "to bind," related to desmos "band" (from PIE root *dē- "to bind," for which see diadem).

"I pitied thee, Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour One thing or other." ["The Tempest"]

also throw-away, 1901 in reference to very low prices; by 1903 in reference to printed material meant to be read once then tossed, and to wasted votes; with reference to disposable consumer goods, attested from 1969. From the verbal phrase, attested from late 14c. in the sense "reject, cast from oneself," from throw (v.) + away (adv.). More literal meaning of "dispose of as useless, release from one's possession as unneeded" is first recorded 1520s. Throw-away society attested from 1967.

"of or pertaining to a wife," 1778, from Latin uxoris (see uxorious) + -al (1). Sometimes is used in the sense of uxorius.

We still say that a husband hangs out the broom when his wife goes from home for a short time; and on such occasions a broom besom has been exhibited as a signal that the house was freed from uxorial restraint, and where the master might be considered as a temporary bachelor. [Samuel Johnson and George Steevens, notes to "The Tempest," 1778]