Beware the ominous green haboob and shun the frumious pollen.

"Ominous green cloud towers over town as storm stirs up rare pollen haboob" — Accuweather.

Have I written about "haboob" before? Meade sent me the link because he thought I might relate "haboob" to the recently blogged "hooha." Funny words, both.

I have, in fact, blogged "haboob" before — back in 2016 when a Texan took umbrage at the use of the word by the National Weather Service.

Haboob!?! I’m a Texan. Not a foreigner from Iraq or Afghanistan. They might have haboobs but around here in the Panhandle of TEXAS, we have Dust Storms. So would you mind stating it that way. I’ll find another weather service.

The OED traces the word in English back to 1897 and includes this example from 1959:

1959 R. E. Huschke Gloss. Meteorol. 268 Haboob (many variant spellings, including habbub, habub, haboub, hubbob, hubbub), a strong wind and sandstorm or duststorm in the northern and central Sudan, especially around Khartum, where the average number is about 24 a year.

Wait a minute! Hubbub? Is the familiar English word "hubbub" based on the Sudanese sandstorm? No. "Hubbub" may be an alternate spelling of "haboob," but the familiar word "hubbub" is much older, going back to the 16th century and — according to the OED — "often referred to as an Irish outcry, and probably representing some Irish expression. Compare Gaelic ub! ub! ubub! an interj. of aversion or contempt; abu! the war-cry of the ancient Irish."

Here's a long sentence — diagram this! — from Milton's "Paradise Lost" (boldface added):

So eagerly the fiend
Ore bog or steep, through strait, rough, dense or rare,
With head, hands, wings, or feet pursues his way,
And swims or sinks or wades, or creeps, or flyes:
At length a universal hubbub wilde
Of stunning sounds and voices all confus'd
Born through the hollow dark assaults his eare
With loudest vehemence: thither he plyes,
Undaunted to meet there whatever power
Or spirit of the nethermost Abyss
Might in that noise reside, of whom to ask
Which way the nearest coast of darkness lyes
Bordering on light; when strait behold the Throne
Of Chaos, and his dark pavilion spread
Wide on the wasteful deep; with him Enthron'd
Sat Sable-vested Night, eldest of things,
The Consort of his Reign; and by them stood
Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name
Of Demogorgon; Rumor next and Chance,
And Tumult and Confusion all imbroil'd,
And Discord with a thousand various mouths.