GtO 1: It's Raining Cats and Dogs

I know this one...but boomarking to see what others come up with !!

I'll wait & see then .... No idea!

I have heard an answer that is making the rounds on the internet and I understand it is so much hogwash--just as likely as a scuba diver being sucked in the water for aerial forest fire fighting.

Have you ever seen a thatched roof? Mice could frolic and clamber if the thatch were not well maintained, but not cats--and certainly not dogs. Nor would a harried housewife of the Renaissance put up with animals both underfoot and overhead.

I believe "raining cats and dogs" came not from animals cascading from a thatched cottage ceiling, but from an American wit of the era of tall tales who took the Biblical plagues (and flood) and the rumored rains of frogs and fish.

Our homegrown leg-puller looked at a real gullywasher and hollered, "Wet? Hell, its raining cats and dogs."

My parent's always said it was raining cats, dogs and pitchforks!

I don't know how those pitchforks got in there - must be something related to hell??

As far as I remember, there are about five or even six explanations to this.

margo

Those 'pitchforks' come from other pictreque sayings for heavy rain: 'It's raining like pitchforks, hammer handles, and even chicken coops.'

And in German, 'it's raining binding twines' [stair-rods].

Noddy, I've heard the explanation about cats and dogs falling through thatched roofs. I don't know where it came from, but the answer here is from an etymological source and has nothing to do with thatched roofs. I like your guess about the gullywasher.

Margo, Pitchforks? New one to me.

Walter, Chicken coops!? Everybody duck!

Is Noddy the only one to hazard a guess?

A serious rain in my town rains with - aside from something so routine as volume - something called hail...big thwoppers of hard rain falling. Ice chunks if you will. But big, as in cats and dogs.

Ok, I made that up.

"It's Raining Men"...The WeatherGirls.

Does it have to do with the noise level of a thunderstorm?

I'm looking forward to your explanation, Roberta!

Men don't have anything to do with thunder!

Lightening, yes! Thnunder, no!

The Answer

Although there are a number of theories as to the origin of the expression "It's raining cats and dogs," the one that seems likely to be the true origin is Teutonic/Nordic.

The wind was believed to be the god Odin's dog. When it poured, it was believed that the dog was chasing a cat, which took the form of rain. So when there was a driving rain storm, it was said that Odin was dropping cats and dogs from the sky.

Another theory concerning the origin of the expression stems from England. Stray dogs and cats lived in the sewers of the city of London. After a heavy rainfall, the bodies of drowned animals were scattered around the streets, giving the impression that they had fallen to earth with the rain.

There are really some more theories.



Re. Roberta's last mentioned:
It's raining men… dogs, cats and fish and frogs

Others: World Wide Worlds

So, aware your head!

Hey, I think that is my dog with legs akimbo in front of the red door...tell me I am wrong...

http://cinnabar10.tripod.com/austinspage

I was going to make something up about the ancient German word "Katzendogge" but I would have never got away with it...

A "Katzenhund" belongs in the realm of fiction (Fabel/fable).

You are correct about your dog, cav. (Does he ask for royalities now?)

Not yet, and I certainly hope he doesn't learn to ask...he knows far too much English already...

My brother swears that his dog now understands the word "walk" when it is spelled. I told him they'll have to switch to French. It's about time that dog learned a foreign language!

Thanks for the General Information, Roberta.

Walter, I loved the picture.

I grew up with a dog whose vocabulary included both "ice cream" and "i-c-e-c-r-e-a-m". Her verbal skills focused on foot.

As an adult I owned a dog who could distinguish between "walkies", "ridies" (in the car) and "truckies". She was a notable eavesdropper for all sorts of conversations.

My cat has a fairly limited vocabulary, but he does know the word "cookies." If I don't want him to get worked into a lather, I have to spell that word when he's around.