Meanings
plural hurriquakes
- neologismAn incidence of a hurricane and an earthquake occurring in quick succession.
The year of the hurriquake?
1999 September 30, Old Curmudgeon, “1999 year of the Quake? Or Hurricane?”, in alt.obituaries (Usenet)3 more examples
HURRIQUAKE 2011 ¶ The week of August 22, 2011 may go down in weather history as one of the strangest in the Washington, DC area : On Tuesday, August 23, our area was hit with a magnitude 5.8 earthquake. […] ¶ […] The following Saturday night, Hurricane Irene passed just east of the area.
2011 November 16, ARRL Web site, “The ARES E-Letter for November 16, 2011”, in rec.radio.info (Usenet)Push notifications began to warn Southern California residents of the risk of flash flooding just a few hours before alerts about the earthquake arrived. Memes began to circulate instantly, as well as a T-shirt that read: “I Survived Hurriquake Hilary.”
2023 August 22, Laura J. Nelson, “What happened when a ‘hurriquake’ struck Ojai? Little damage, plenty of weird vibes”, in Los Angeles Times"Like most of my peers, I did not expect a 'hurriquake' to start off the year," said senior Peter King of Lenexa, Kansas.
2023 August 24, Gina Christian, “'There's no knocking down God': Catholic college students weather 'hurriquake' with faith”, in Detroit Catholic
Origin
Blend of hurricane + earthquake. First attested in 1999 as a nonce word.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
hurriquake. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hurriquake
“hurriquake.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hurriquake. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “hurriquake,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hurriquake.
Source: hurriquake on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.