A vocabulary of landscape — a landscape of words
1190 entries
willy-willy
A willy-willy is a dust devil: a spinning column of rising air made visible by the dust and debris it lifts, forming on hot still days over dry ground when a patch of superheated surface air breaks loose and rises through a rotating chimney. Australian ones can reach several hundred feet and last for many minutes, and they carry loose material a long way.
Etymology
The word is Australian and came into English from one or more Aboriginal languages of Western Australia, though the exact source is disputed. It was also used loosely for a tropical cyclone in early Australian English, which the weather bureau has spent decades discouraging. It is not the same word as williwaw, which is a violent squall descending from coastal mountains.
Notes
A dust devil is not a small tornado. It builds from the ground upward from surface heating and has no connection to any cloud, while a tornado descends from a thunderstorm and is driven by an entirely different mechanism. In several Aboriginal traditions, a willy-willy carries a spirit and children are told not to go near one, which is sound advice in general.