What Is The Meaning Of It Rains Cats And Dogs

[Billy Habash]

Thisis an interesting phrase in that, although there's no definitive origin, there is a likely derivation. [...] The fact that [Jonathan] Swift had alluded to the streets flowing with dead cats and dogs some years earlier and [in 1738] used 'rain cats and dogs' explicitly is good evidence that poor sanitation was the source of the phrase as we now use it.

The English idiom "it is raining cats and dogs", used to describe an especially heavy rain, is of unknown etymology [...] There may not be a logical explanation; the phrase may have been used just for its nonsensical humor value[.]

The British origin of this expression for a heavy downpour makes perfectly good sense, given that the country's notorious reputation fro rainfall. Two centuries before Shaw composed his concluding refrain to an Irish song ["At last I went to Ireland,/ 'Twas raining cats and dogs:/ I found no music in the glens/ Nor purple in the bogs." 1931], Jonathan Swift had written "I know Sir John will go, though he was sure it would rain cats and dogs" (1738), using a term that was already a cliche.

The expression's origin is cloudy. One writer says it comes North European myth, where cats supposedly have great influence on weather and the dog is a symbol of wind; hence the cat denotes heavy rain and the dog strong wind gusts. Another suggests the analogy of a raging storm to the hubbub of a cat-and-dog fight. Perhaps a more literal meaning is the true source. In 17th-century Britain, after a cloudburst, the gutters would overflow with a filthy torrent that included dead animals, along with sewage and other debris. Whatever the source the phrase called up an image picturesque enough to persist and be passed down to the present.

Now you must understand that after the Knight of the Golden Tulip was retaken through the great Courage of the Knight of the Bath, he was secured in the Castle of the Lyons, and eke the Knight of the Mysterious Allegories was there secured also, so that they had often opportunities to discourse together. Now when they saw each they congratulated one another right lovingly; Quoth Sr. Vane I am right glad to see you Sr. Lambert, though not so glad to see you here, however it is better to be here than in the open Fields, where there is no shelter against the Rain, nor any other kind of storm that should happen, for here we have Houses over our heads, so that if it should rain Dogs and Cats we could have no harm. And by the Masse quoth Sr. Lambert you speak right cunningly Sr. Vane; And besides this we do not fear to have our Corns trod upon by the Horses of the enraged Charrioters, nor are we in danger to be bruised by those sturdy Gyants ycleped Carrmen, nor need we fear to have our mantles snatch'd from us going late in the direul plain of Lincolns-Inna; however Liberty is worth its weight in pure Gold.

Sarpego. From henceforth Erit Fluvius Deucalionis the world shall flow with dunces; Regnabitque, and it shall raine/ Dogmata Polla Sophon, dogs and polecats, and so forth.

The joke here is that "Dogmata Polla Sophon" translates from Greek (according to Google Translate) as "Doctrines of Many Wise Men." It is only in the mouth of the character Sarpego that dogmata becomes "dogs," polla becomes "polecats," and sophon becomes "and so forth." Regnabitque, too, is reduced from something associated with the Latin word for kingdom to "rain."

Nevertheless, I think it is quite plausible that the origin of the expression is no more odd and mysterious than someone looking out the door or window at a heavy downpour and saying, "It's raining so hard that I wouldn't be surprised if dogs and cats started coming down in it, too."

In early America, pioneers were going west in covered wagons, but they had to build their own shelters when they first arrived in the West. At first, there were neither lumber mills to furnish building materials, nor (in many places) logs to build log cabins. So, shelters were build into the earth, as a one room "home" where all slept at night. The small rooms were covered by a few tree branches covered with straw. The pets, cats and dogs, slept in the flat straw roofs, through which they slipped through into the room below,, when it rained long and heavily. So it was "raining cats and dogs".

Here is some pure speculation, Suppose an abandoned building was infested with feral cats. To put the building back into use the cats were collected and thrown out the windows onto the street below where, if they survived the fall, they were chased by dogs. At the same time it was raining. An unfortunate pedestrian would easily observe, "It's raining cats and dogs."

2) In Norse mythology, Odin, the father-god responsible for storms, was often depicted with dogs and wolves representing winds. According to folklore, witches rode their brooms during storms, accompanied by their black cats, so that image took on the connotations of heavy rains for sailors. Odin and witches could be responsible for the expression.

Another idea from comes from old British towns that lacked proper construction. Because of poor town design and flood risks, cats and dogs would drown whenever there was a major storm. People would see the dead bodies of the animals floating by as if they had dropped from the sky like a proverbial rain of frogs.

And one more interesting reference comes from Norse mythology. Cats and dogs were taken to sea and on Viking raids because of myths, as pets, and as beasts of burden, but cats specifically were thought to have influence over storms. There are multiple versions of the myths and superstitions from the Viking era and into the medieval times. In some explanation, cats had great influence over storms or weather in general while dogs were a signal in wind. In a similar explanation, cats were symbols of torrential rains and the dog attendants of the Storm God Odin were gusts of wind. In yet another Norse Pantheon-related description, witches who transformed into cats rode upon the storm to follow Odin and his dog. These dogs, in this case, could refer to Geri and Freki in the Poetic Edda, but the theories are as wild and loose as the storms they describe.

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