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It’s a dark and stormy weekend, so I felt inspired to investigate the origins of a strange English-language idiom: It’s raining cats and dogs. Cats feature in quite a few English idioms, and all of the ones that spring to mind are really rather strange. This is probably a topic I’ll come back to because I find it fascinating. For anyone who isn’t familiar with the phrase, to say it’s raining cats and dogs means it is absolutely pouring down rain.
But what does this have to do with our pets? Certainly nothing obvious. There have been real life reports of fish, frogs, and other small animals falling from the sky during storms. Seriously, Google it. It’s fascinating. But as far as I know, no one has ever seen cats and/or dogs raining from the heavens. So why would we say it’s raining cats and dogs instead of fish and frogs?
The first known instance of “raining cats and dogs” was in 1738 in Jonathan Swift’s A Complete Collection of Polite and Ingenious Conversation, where he wrote “I know Sir John will go, though he was sure it would rain cats and dogs” (1, 2, 3). However, it may have been in common use before that, and there are literary instances of the phrase in other forms at least as early as the 17th century (1, 2, 3).
As is often the case with language, trying to track down the origin of this phrase has proved tricky. The older and more widely-disseminated an idiom becomes, the murkier its background tends to get. Language naturally changes over time, and the original turn of phrase is often lost. There are several theories that “raining cats and dogs” is what’s known as a corruption of a foreign phrase. That is to say, a phrase in one language is repeated verbatim by native speakers of another, and it evolves into something else.
One of these theories claims that our modern idiom began with the Greek phrase kata doksa, which means “contrary to expectation” (1). It is sometimes used to describe heavy rain, along with other unexpected things (1). This phrase does bear an audiological resemblance to “cats and dogs,” and the use to describe rain in its native language is promising. However, this requires kata doksa to have made its way into English usage. If this happened, no one has been able to track that journey (1).
The Greek word for the thunderous cataracts of the Nile river, Katadoupoi, has also been suggested as a possible source (1). In this case, an obscure French word for waterfall, catadoupe, is said to be the link between the Greek and the English (2, 3, 4). English speakers are thought to have turned the French word into “cats and dogs” over time (4), although some think it rather a stretch to find dogs anywhere in catadoupe (1, 3).
With some reverse-engineering, Italian and Dutch phrases have also been put forth as possible origins, but without solid evidence (1). Another popular theory discards linguistic evolution in favor of Nordic mythology. This school of thought posits that dogs/wolves were associated with Odin, god of storms, thus the canines were themselves associated with stormy winds (1, 2, 3, 4). Cats, then were said to symbolize rain or be thought to bring rain (1, 2, 3, 4). This was either the superstition of sailors (4) or because cats were associated with witches, who rode the storms in the form of their feline familiars (1, 3).
As interesting as that is, the mythology doesn’t support it. Odin is not a storm god (1). Perhaps someone was thinking of Thor? Moreover, the animals associated with Odin are a horse and two ravens, not dogs and wolves (1). While cats and witchcraft became strongly linked in European folklore, they aren’t a part of Nordic myth like this popular theory would have us believe (1).
Maybe the origins of this bizarre idiom aren’t to be found abroad, but rather in England, its native soil. A rather practical but very depressing theory is based on the poor urban infrastructure of 17th century England. The rivers and even the streets were essentially both open sewers and landfills. When animals died, people threw them in the waterways or left them out on the street. Stray and feral cats and dogs were everywhere, too. They were left where they died. Without storm drains, it’s possible that some animals drowned during heavy downpours, contributing to the number of dead cats and dogs that would be seen floating in the streets and rivers during or after a heavy rain (1, 3, 4).
This sad scene may have prompted some people to think that the animals had actually fallen with the rain or at least to make an association between the two phenomena (1, 4). However, people would be used to seeing dead animals on the streets and in their waterways during dry weather as well, so this idea is a bit of a stretch (3). Still, the 1600s were a strange time, and people came up with a lot of strange ideas.
Another suggestion, which I remember hearing somewhere, refers to conditions in even earlier times. It starts with thatched roofs. A thatched roof is made of layers of dried vegetation, forming an insulating and waterproof covering. This was the traditional form of roofing in many parts of the world, including England in centuries past.
The story goes that small animals and even family pets or stray cats and dogs would take shelter from inclement weather in the thatching of English homes (5). If the rain came down hard enough they would slip and fall out, thus making it seem to rain cats and dogs (3). This hypothesis seems to have primarily circulated in one of those fun fact emails that used to be so popular (3). It probably has no basis in reality. That small animals like bugs and mice lived in thatched roofs is likely, but to suppose anything as large as cats and dogs did is pretty ridiculous (3). I am embarrassed to admit that I believed this rumor for years nonetheless.
Perhaps trying to find an explanation for this phrase is besides the point, though. One of the more common theories is that the idiom has no complicated origin, but is simply a silly and imaginative phrase that someone came up with to describe heavy rain (2, 3, 4). If we consider some of the idioms in other languages used to refer to such deluges, this starts to make sense. Some, such as “it’s raining buckets” or “jugs” are pretty straightforward, as they suggest water pouring out of a vessel (5). Others are much more creative. Below are some of my favorites (5, 6):
- Welsh: It’s raining old women and sticks
- Slovak: Tractors are falling
- Greek: It’s raining chair legs
- Spanish: It’s raining toads and snakes
- Aussie English: It’s a frog strangler
And many, many more of varying degrees of weirdness. Maybe there is a reasonable explanation for why we say it’s raining cats and dogs, as it is outside my window right now. Maybe there’s an explanation for all the strange things people say about the weather. Or maybe there’s no really reason for any of it besides human creativity. Probably no one will ever know for sure. Personally, I’m glad there aren’t any tractors falling.
Works Cited
- Liberman, A. (2007, March 21). Raining cats and dogs. Oxford University Press Blog. https://blog.oup.com/2007/03/raining_cats_an/
- Quinion, M. (2007, December 29). Raining cats and dogs. World Wide Words. http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-rai1.htm/
- Martin, G. (n.d.). Raining cats and dogs. The Phrase Finder. https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/raining-cats-and-dogs.html
- Brasch, R. and Brasch, L. (2006). How did it begin: The origins of our curious customs and superstitions. HarperCollins Australia.
- Ager, S. (n.d.). It’s raining cats and dogs. Omniglot. https://www.omniglot.com/language/idioms/rain.php
- Raining cats and dogs. (2020, August 15). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raining_cats_and_dogs
Published August 16th, 2020
Updated December 7th, 2020
