Literature: “rainy” idioms in English

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Of all the English idioms, it is the “rainy” ones that seem to Russian nonsense: it is hard to understand at first glance why “animals” of varying degrees of exoticism and life-threatening objects fall from the sky during a shower. It's raining cats and dogs, it rains pitchforks and stair-rods - the origin of these phrases is foggy, like Albion itself. And each, like a worthy English joke, has its own highlight.

Let's start with the most difficult case - with “cats and dogs”. British scientists etymologists are still not sure what it is - a good verbal pirouette of the XVIII century, the global description of a natural disaster or an attempt to reflect in the comic-concise howls rebellious elements.



The verbal pirouette belongs to Mr. Jonathan Swift - the very Swift who coined Gulliver and the word "Yahoo" (yeehu). In his book, The Complete Collection of Noble and Witty Conversations, he wrote:

" I know Sir John will go, though he was sure it would rain cats and dogs ."

And thus, he beautifully referred to his other work of almost thirty years ago. The poetic sketch “Description of the rain in the city” perfectly reflected Swift's modernity in 1710 and 1738: strong streams of water washed dead cats and puppies from the gutters and carried them along the streets. What can I say? An unsightly sight is a wonderful target for a caustic satirist!

A little earlier, another satirist, Richard Brom, in the comedy “City wit, or a woman in breeches” (1652) stated that it was not a matter of cats, but of ferrets:

“It shall rain dogs and polecats.

Polecat - black forest ferret; in Great Britain thrived everywhere until the end of the 19th century. Unlike cats, ferrets are able to swim, so it’s more likely that the sounds of heavy rain resemble a squabble between a wild ferret and a dog.

And then - more interesting. In the poetry collection Swan from the Ask River (1651), we are talking about a "SOUL" of cats and dogs. And alright, there would simply be a lot of unhappy animals, figuratively speaking. But no - the poet Henry Vaughn (by the way, a Welshman, not a Korean) claims that "the roof will reliably protect the goods of the peddlers" from such a disaster:

“... from dogs and cats rained in shower.”

And this already draws to a natural cataclysm, unusual for us, but quite familiar “for them.”

As an island nation, Britain saw many storms and storms, however, written evidence of eyewitnesses from the 15th to the 18th century was partially preserved or not at all. But there is plenty of information about the most formidable hurricane in the history of the country, the Great Storm of 1703 - thanks to the enterprising intelligence spy Daniel Defoe. This hurricane with a thunderstorm and downpour swept from Wales to London, destroying houses, tearing up trees, breaking up English ships. According to witnesses, "no one could believe the hundredth part of what he saw."

As for Defoe himself, he was fabulously lucky both as a person and as a writer. Just a couple of days before the hurricane, he left prison (recruited by conservatives and was in debt), and immediately after the disaster he interviewed numerous eyewitnesses - the know-how in journalism of that era - and wrote the novel “The Storm”. His contemporary Swift was then in Dublin, where the hurricane did not reach. Turn it all differently, who knows what other expressions would add to the British English of the New Age, except for raining cats and dogs?

The Americans did not stand aside and contributed to the language. In David Humphries’s comedy, this is another witty adjutant of George Washington, “The Yankees in England” (1815) meets this:

I'll be even with you, if it rains pitchforks-tinesdownwards. "[Pitchforks-tines - prongs on the forks.]

Then the phrase" simplified "to it's raining like pitchforks When penetrating rain jet punch umbrella or the fabric of clothing -. It is the most do))

hammer handle ( IT rains hammer handles ) and chicken cells ( IT rains chicken coops ) also came up with the Americans, but who and under what circumstances - is difficult to say, for true all:. from onomatopoeia to storm hurricane

interesting idiom belongs wit Australians: IT's a frog strangler (original IT's a frog-Strangling the downpour ) Actually, nobody strangles frogs, they just drown, because there is a flood on the street!

Returning to Britain, there were metal bars left: it's raining stair-rods . These are the most brilliant decorative gizmos with which they lay the front carpet paths on marble stairs. There is nothing to do with the hurricane, it’s about a strong, strong downpour: calm, long, even jets really resemble rods (or strokes, as in Chinese engravings).

It rains darning needles ” (literally “darn needles”) complain about the “thorny” rain . And they say about a noisy, frantic downpour: “ it's bucketing ” (originally “ it's raining buckets ” - it’s pouring from a bucket) or “ it's raining wolves and tigers ” and even “ it's raining elephants and giraffes"- the choice depends on the amount of water, the power of sound effects and personal desire to joke. Here we ’ll write it's raining kittens and puppies - about weak, drizzling rain. The last three expressions, as you can see, are derivatives of “ cats and dogs ”.

Well, we figured out the idiomatic zest, Amazon wandered etymologies in the wilds of the Amazon , it's time and anecdote to recall:

“Gosh, it's raining cats and dogs,” said Fred looking out of the kitchen window.
"I know," said his mother. “I've just stepped in a poodle!”

(Poodle ['pu: dl] - poodle, puddle [' pʌdl] - puddle. Who wants to translate - go for it!)

And close the “rainy” topic)

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