Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origins 116. The word origins today is
raining cats and dogs. Yeah I know. You know ever since I was a teacher, you've
often had students say why do they say raining cats and dogs. Even in English, we
think raining cats and dogs where did they get that from ?
But anyway, so today we will try to cover it. There's a there's a number of
theories as to where it came from and well let's look at the note here. Let's
try to stop looking at that. If someone says that it is raining cats and dogs,
he or she means it is raining extremely hard. Yeah. Most of us know this. We're
familiar with this older phrase. Let's continue. There are several theories to
the origin but none are ... none of them really can be confirmed with certainty.
Okay. Let's continue. The first one has to do with poor drainage during the 17th
century in Europe. If the rain were extremely hard and it caused floods many
cats and dogs as well as a lot of other smaller animals drowned in the flooding
and their bodies were left scattered in the street after the floods subsided.
This does actually sound like a possibility that this could be where it
came from. There are two quotes from the poet, Jonathan Swift that relate to this
theory. In a 1710 poem called "Description of a City Shower. " He had this quote.
"Drowned puppies and little dogs, stinking sprats. " I think there are a little type
of fish or herring or something . "All drenched in the mud, dead cats and turnip
tops came tumbling down the flood. " All right. So you can kind of imagine what
it might look like back at that time. This second quote was from 1738. You
know, 28 years later. And here it is. "I know Sir John will go though he was
sure it would cats and dogs. " So he actually used this
phrase too. Let's continue. Here's a second theory . A second theory is that it may be a
corruption. A corruption is like a mispronunciation of something of the
French word "catadupe. ' Meaning waterfall. So the rain could be coming down
like a waterfall. And catadupe or you know maybe they didn't do it right. Maybe
catadupe sounded like cats and dogs. catadupe . Cats and
dogs. Something like that. Meaning waterfall which came from the Greek Kataddupi
All right. This sounds like maybe a possibility.
There is a third theory. Although some question , some do question this theory. So
this one they may think it's the least likely. But some say in the
sixteenth century, many peasants homes had thatched roofs. Okay. Which animals
like which animals like cats and dogs would go on for shelter and comfort. But
during heavy rains they would slide off. So in that sense , they're saying you know,,
again raining cats and dogs. Okay. And we do have a final theory here. The final
theory is related to Norse mythology. You know, Odin of the father of Thor. Remember
now the Avengers. Thor he... Remember Thor is the god of thunder. Okay. And his
father I guess was you know, was the god of storms.
Okay. So Odin the father of Thor was the god of storms and he was often pictured
with dogs. According to Norse mythology cats
were believed to bring the rain and dogs the wind. So I don't know sounds like a
little bit of a possibility. All right. And we just give one example here. This
is the way we still may hear it used today. You should wait out the storm. It's
raining cats and dogs or it's raining cats and dogs outside. Okay. Anyway,
I hope you got it. I hope you found it interesting and informative and you know
one of these may be the real possibility of the origin for raining cats and dogs.
Anyway I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.