Raining cats and dogs

File:George Cruikshank - Very unpleasant Weather (retouched).jpg

A 19th-century cartoon by English artist George Cruikshank illustrating the phrase "raining cats and dogs" (and "pitchforks")

The English-language idiom "raining cats and dogs" or "raining dogs and cats" is used to describe particularly heavy rain. It is of unknown etymology and is not necessarily related to the raining animals phenomenon. The phrase (with "polecats" instead of "cats") has been used at least since the 17th century.

Etymology

A number of possible etymologies have been put forward to explain the phrase.

One possible explanation involves the drainage systems on buildings in 17th-century Europe, which were poor and may have disgorged their contents, including the corpses of any animals that had accumulated in them, during heavy showers. This occurrence is described in Jonathan Swift's 1710 poem "Description of a City Shower":

Another explanation is that "cats and dogs" may be a corruption of the Greek word , referring to the waterfalls on the Nile, possibly through the old French word ('waterfall'). In old English, meant a cataract or waterfall.

It has been suggested that "Cats and dogs" may come from the Greek expression , which means "contrary to experience or belief"; if it is raining cats and dogs, it is raining unusually hard. However there is no evidence to support the theory that the expression was borrowed by English speakers.

An online rumor largely circulated through email claimed that, in 16th-century Europe, animals could crawl into the thatch of peasant homes to seek shelter from the elements and would fall out during heavy rain. However, no evidence has been found in support of the claim.

There may not be a logical explanation; the phrase may have been used just for its nonsensical humor value, or to describe particularly heavy rainfall, like other equivalent English expressions ("raining pitchforks", "raining hammer handles").

Equivalent expressions in other languages

Other languages have equally bizarre expressions for heavy rain.

Language	Expression	English translation
Afan Oromo		the sky got torn
Afrikaans		it's raining old tribal women/women/aunts with knobsticks
		it's raining frogs and toads
Albanian		[rain] is falling like ropes
		God is taking a piss
		God is crying
Bengali		rain is falling like pestles
Bosnian		crowbars dropping
		it's pouring like from a bucket
Cantonese		it's raining dog's poo
Chinese	/	it's pouring out of basins
Catalan		raining boats and barrels
Croatian		axes dropping
Czech		falling wheelbarrows
		rains like from a watering can
Danish		raining shoemakers' apprentices
Dutch		raining pipe stems (or stair rods)
Dutch (Flemish)		raining old women
		raining kittens
Estonian		raining like from a beanstalk
	kallab nagu ämbrist	raining as if poured from a bucket
Finnish		raining like from Esteri's ass
		raining as if poured from a bucket
French		raining like a peeing cow
		raining buckets
		raining halberds
		raining nails
		raining ropes
		raining enough to drink standing
Georgian		raining like water flows from a filled (koka: 'water measuring tableware, jar')
German		raining young dogs
		raining like poured from buckets
		raining strings
Greek		raining chair legs
Hebrew		stormy/raging rain
Hindi		rain like a pestle [onto a mortar]
Hungarian		like poured from a vat
Icelandic		like poured from a bucket
Japanese	Template:Category handler	earth and sand descending
Kannada		a stream of mallets
Italian		poured from a basin
Latin		it rained from a basin
Latvian		it's raining like from buckets
Lithuanian		it's pouring like from a bucket
Malayalam		mad rain
Maltese	infetħu bwieb is-sema	the doors of the sky have opened
Marathi		rain like a pestle [onto a mortar]
Nepali		rain like a pestle [onto a mortar]
Norwegian		raining she-trolls
	det snør kattunger	it's snowing kittens
Odia		rain like a pestle [onto a mortar]
Persian		raining jackals
Polish		pouring like from a bucket
		[the rain/it] is throwing frogs
Portuguese		raining penknives
		raining by the pot load
		raining by the bucket load
		raining by the pitcher load
		raining by the jug load
		it's raining chorizos
Portuguese (Brazil)		raining snakes and lizards
		a stick of water is falling
		a foot of water is falling
Punjabi		rain that beats kids
Romanian		raining frogs
		breaking with rain
		raining from a bucket
Russian		it's pouring like from a bucket
Scottish Gaelic		the rain as rough as whelks
		the drowning deluge
Serbian		axes are falling
		pouring like from a bucket
Sinhalese		raining cats and dogs
Spanish		shortpikes/icicles point first
		raining by the clay pot-full
		(the rain) is hitting us like they hit an octopus
		raining toads and snakes
Spanish (Argentina)		pointing down turds are falling
Spanish (Colombia)		raining husbands
Spanish (Venezuela)		a stick of water is falling
Swedish		raining little devils
		raining small nails
		the rain stands like canes on the ground
		sky fall
Tamil		ghost rain
Telugu		pouring like an inverted pot
Thai	ฝนตกไม่ลืมหูลืมตา	raining without opening its eyes and ears
Turkish		raining like poured from a cup
Ukrainian		pouring like from a bucket
Urdu		rain like a pestle [on a mortar]
Vietnamese		raining as pouring a lot of water
Welsh		raining old ladies and sticks

See also

• English-language idioms
• Rain of animals