Where did the term "it's raining cats and dogs" come from?

Answer 1

There seems to be several points of opinion about this term. As an English teacher - I know foremost that it is a 'figure of speech' with enhanced meanings. It is also used as: "fighting like cats and dogs" - with reference to the animals not getting along. The phrase is supposed to have originated in England in the 17th century when city streets were filthy and heavy rain would occasionally carry along dead animals.
The most favoured one in the references I have found is mythological. It seems that cats were at one time thought to have influence over storms, especially by sailors, and that dogs were symbols of storms, often accompanying images and descriptions of the Norse storm god Odin. So when some particularly violent tempest appeared, people suggested it was caused by cats (bringing the rain) and dogs (the wind). I am sure there are other rumors to this idiom.

Answer 2

we've all heard the expression "that's raining cats and dogs." There are quite a few theories about this rainfall asserting. that's conceivable that the be conscious cat is derived from the Greek be conscious 'catadupe' which potential 'waterfall.' Or it will be raining 'cata doxas,' it extremely is Latin for 'opposite to journey,' or an unusual fall of rain. In Northern mythology the cat is meant to have tremendous impression on the elements, and English sailors nonetheless say the cat has a gale of wind in her tail at the same time as she is extremely frisky. Witches that rode upon the storms were reported to imagine the style of cats; and the stormy northwest wind is termed the cat's nostril interior the Harz mountains even on the contemporary. The dogs is an illustration of wind, like the wolf. both animals were attendants of Odin, the hurricane-god. In previous German pictures the wind is figured because the "head of a dogs or wolf," from which blasts difficulty. The cat hence symbolizes the down-pouring of rain, and the dogs the coolest gusts of wind that accompany a rainstorm; and a rain of "cats and dogs" is a heavy rain with wind.

Answer 3

The most common one says that in olden times, homes had thatched roofs in which domestic animals such as cats and dogs would like to hide. In heavy rain, the animals would either be washed out of the thatch, or rapidly abandon it for better shelter, so it would seem to be raining cats and dogs. Other suggestions include derivation from an unspecified Greek aphorism that was similar in sound and which meant “an unlikely occurrence”, or that it is a corrupted version of a rare French word, catadoupe, meaning a waterfall. It has also been suggested that at one time the streets of British towns were so poorly constructed that many cats and dogs would drown whenever there was a storm; people seeing the corpses floating by would think they had fallen from the sky, like the proverbial rains of frogs.

The most favoured one in the references I have found is mythological. It seems that cats were at one time thought to have influence over storms, especially by sailors, and that dogs were symbols of storms, often accompanying images and descriptions of the Norse storm god Odin. So when some particularly violent tempest appeared, people suggested it was caused by cats (bringing the rain) and dogs (the wind).

Answer 4

a long long time ago when it got cold dogs and cats used to sleep in the roof of houses because it was the only place where they could get warm. so when it rained that would slide out or fall. hence the term "raining cats and dogs"

Answer 5

Meaning

Raining very heavily.

Origin

This is an interesting phrase in that, although there's no definitive origin, there are several speculative derivations. Before we get to those, lets get some of the incorrect suggestions out of the way.

The phrase seems isn't related to the well-known antipathy between dogs and cats, which is made word in the phrase 'fight like cat and dog'. Aside from the presence of cat and dog in the phrase, there's nothing at all to connect their fighting with raining.

Nor is the phrase in any sense literal, i.e. recording the fact that cats and dogs fell from the sky. Numbers of small creatures, of the size of frogs or fish, do occasionally get carried skywards in freak weather. That must happen to individual dogs or cats from time to time too, but there's no record of groups of them being scooped up in that way. Not that we'd need meteorological record for that - it's plainly implausible.

In fact, 'raining cats and dogs' only makes sense figuratively and the explanations below that attempt to link the phrase to felines, canines and weather seem rather feeble.

Here goes though - take your pick:

It comes from mythology. Witches, who often took the form of their familiars - cats, are supposed to have ridden the wind. Dogs and wolves were attendants to Odin, the god of storms and sailors associated them with rain. Well, some evidence would be nice. There doesn't appear to be any to support this notion.


Cats and dogs were supposed to be washed from roofs during heavy weather. This is a widely repeated tale. It got a lease of life with the message "Life in the 1500s", which began circulating on the Internet in 1999. Here's the relevant part of that:

I'll describe their houses a little. You've heard of thatch roofs, well that's all they were. Thick straw, piled high, with no wood underneath. They were the only place for the little animals to get warm. So all the pets; dogs, cats and other small animals, mice, rats, bugs, all lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery so sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Thus the saying, "it's raining cats and dogs."

This is nonsense of course. It hardly needs debunking, but, lest there be any doubt...

Dogs lived in thatched roofs? No, of course they didn't. Even accepting that mad idea, for them to have slipped off when it rained they would have needed to be on the outside - hardly the place an animal would head for to shelter from bad weather.


The phrase is supposed to have originated in England in the 17th century when city streets were filthy and heavy rain would occasionally carry along dead animals.

The idea that seeing dead cats and dogs floating by in storms would cause people to coin this phrase is just about believable. People may not have actually thought the animals had come from the sky, but might have made up the phrase to suit the occasion.


Another suggestion is that it comes from a version of the French word, catadoupe, meaning waterfall.

Well, again. No evidence. If the phrase were 'raining cats' or if there also existed a French word, dogadoupe we might be going somewhere with this one. As there isn't let's pass this by.
Returning to facts rather than idle speculation, we do know that the phrase was in use in a modified form in 1653, when Richard Brome's The City Wit, has the line:

"It shall raine ... Dogs and Polecats".

Polecats aren't cats as such but the jump between them in linguistic rather than veterinary terms isn't large.

In a form more like the current version it appears in Jonathan Swift’s A Complete Collection of Polite and Ingenious Conversation in 1738:

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

More likely than any of the versions given above is that this is just a nice descriptive turn of phrase, which doesn't relate to any particular event or practise.

There's a similar phrase originating from the North of England - 'raining stair-rods'. No one has gone to the effort of speculating that this is from mythic reports of stairs being carried into the air in storms and falling on gullible peasants. Its just a rather good vivid phrase giving a graphic impression of heavy rain.

Another similar phrase is 'raining like pitchforks', the first known reference of which is D. Humphreys' Yankey in England, 1815:

"I'll be even with you, if it rains pitchforks - tines downwards."

Answer 6

since cats and dogs are found in abundance,
hence the term came to show heavy rain.

Answer 7

From the fact that large rain drops
tend to bark and meow at each other
as they race around. Eventually some
of them chew on bones and others chase
mice.

Answer 8

i have no idead but it sounds pretty funyn liek its really goign to rain cats and dogs