Q The recent storms seem to be portending a tough winter. With this in mind, can you tell me where we get the word “blizzard”? – H.F., Shoreview, Minn.

A: Unfortunately, nobody really knows the origin of “blizzard.” There is a popular story that claims that a woman named Mother Wells of Spencer, Iowa, coined the word. Mother Wells is supposed to have read a story about a violent-tempered Mr. Blizzard and then to have remarked of a terrific snowstorm in 1866, “My, this is a regular old man Blizzard of a storm.” There is no hard evidence, however, to support this fanciful account.

The word “blizzard,” when used in the meaning “severe snowstorm,” first turned up in 19th-century northwestern Iowa. Its earliest recorded appearance in printed form was in Estherville, Iowa’s, Northern Vindicator on April 23, 1870. Spelled “blizard” (the form “blizzard” showed up in the paper a week later) it was cautiously enclosed in quotation marks.

In other senses, however, “blizzard” existed decades earlier, and the ultimate origin of the word is unclear. The frontiersman and politician Davy Crockett used it on two occasions in the 1830s, once to mean a rifle blast, and once to refer figuratively to a blast of words.

The Oxford English Dictionary suggests that “blizzard” probably developed from similar sounding and descriptive words like “blast,” “bluster,” “blow” and “blister.” That doesn’t make for much of a story, but it is most likely accurate.

Q I’m confused about the word “woebegone.” I know it means “having sorrow,” but since “begone” means “go away,” it seems like it should mean the opposite of that. How did the word come to have its current meaning? – R.H., Richmond, Va.

A: Despite its similar spelling, “woebegone” has no relation to our word “begone.” The word derives from the Middle English phrase “wo begon.” The first half of this phrase does indeed correspond to our word “woe” (meaning “sadness”), but “begon” here serves as a now-defunct past participle of a verb meaning “to go about” or “to beset.” It follows literally, therefore, that a person who is woebegone is someone who is beset with woe, or feeling or showing great sadness.

When it was first used in the 14th century, “wo begon” appeared in such expressions as “me is wo begon,” which means “woe has beset me.” By the early 19th century, the term was used to describe things that seemed to express sadness, as in “He wore a woebegone face.”

This column was prepared by the editors of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition.

Readers may send questions to Merriam-Webster’s Wordwatch, P.O. Box 281, 47 Federal St., Springfield, MA 01102.