The Saturday thunderstorm moved quickly into the neighborhood. Catalpa limbs fell to one side of the house as drenching wind whipped across the yard. Small leaves from the deciduous holly took flight in graceful swirls to the south. Indeed, it was a violent storm. We all tend to describe a severe thunderstorm as violent, but I’ll bet many, like me, never knew the words violent storm appear together in the dictionary.

What sent me to that page was to find the origin of the word violent. Ask most anyone the meaning, and you’ll hear definitions such as intense, extreme, discordant, furious or forceful. And yet the word seems so close in spelling to viol and viola, instruments known for their sweet, mellow tones. But there it was, violent storm, identified as a noun having entered the English language in about 1881. Then there was a reference: See Beaufort Scale table. Who could resist looking back to the B’s?

Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort of the British Navy in about 1805 created a scale to rank the force of the wind, giving numbers wind speeds and other characteristics. The scale goes from 0 to 12, ranging in name from calm to hurricane and in wind speed from 1 mph to 72 mph and now adapted for modern use by the National Weather Service. Beaufort scale came into the dictionary in 1858.

The number for Beaufort’s violent storm is 11, which indicates 64 to 72 mph wind, during which widespread damage occurs.

Here are some others: The number 1 is tagged as light air, with winds 1 to 3 mph and described as wind whose direction is shown by smoke but not by wind vanes. The number 2 is called light breeze, 4 to 7 mph, with wind felt on the face, leaves rustling and weather vanes moving.

Gentle breeze is number 3, with wind speeds 12 to 19 mph and leaves and small twigs in constant motion and causing lightweight flags to fly. Moderate breeze is number 4, with 13 to 18 mph wind speeds and wind raising dust and loose papers and causing small branches to move.

One of the most poetic of Beaufort scale descriptions is the fresh breeze, number 5, with winds 19 to 24 mph. &8220;Small-leaved trees begin to sway; crested wavelets form on inlet waters.&8221; And next is strong breeze, 25 to 31 mph, in which large branches move, overhead wires whistle and pedestrians have problems with umbrellas. A moderate gale or near gale is number 7, with 32 to 38 mph winds, during which trees sway and the wind makes walking difficult. Number 8 is fresh gale or strong gale, with 47 to 54 mph winds, causing small limbs to break off trees and moving cars to veer. Number 9 is strong gale, winds at 47 to 54 mph, likely to cause some structural damage to buildings and to blow shingles from rooftops.

Number 10, whole gale, has 55 to 63 mph winds and strength to uproot trees. Then number 11, the violent storm; and finally, number 12, hurricane wind, both get credit for causing widespread damage.

How important is it for the average person to know about the Beaufort scale? Not very. The lesson may be simply a reminder of all the finely tuned word treasures found between the covers of a dictionary. As for viol and viola, so far no connection with the origin of violent has surfaced. However, other new word gems surely await as the search continues.

Joan Gandy

is community editor of The Democrat. She may be reached at 445-3549 or at joan.gandy@natchezdemocrat. com.