"Wuthering Heights is the name of Mr. Heathcliff's dwelling. 'Wuthering' being a significant provincial adjective, descriptive of the atmospheric tumult to which its station is exposed in stormy weather."
-- Mr. Lockwood, Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë.

You are probably here because of the book Wuthering Heights; otherwise you would be over at the wuther node. Usually we don't bother to node the present progressive tense of verbs, but in this case the original verb is all but extinct, and 'wuthering' is known to the masses only from the name of the rather foreboding and isolated manse of Emily Brontë's novel.

Wuthering does indeed mean 'atmospheric tumult' -- or in more modern language, 'to blow strongly', 'to have blustery winds', or 'blowing with a roaring sound'. It is generally said to come from a local dialect in Northern England in the 1800s, as a variation of the verb 'wither' (in the sense of to weaken, sicken, or kill).


References:
http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/dictionary/DictionaryResults.aspx?refid=561511754
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=wuther
Webster's Third New International Dictionary, 1981

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