MOLINE, Ill. — The phrase “its raining cats and dogs” has been around for a long time. Could there have been a freak weather event a long time ago and it actually rained cats and dogs? The answer is no, there are no records of that happening.
There are many theories about how the phrase started. It could have originated through Norse mythology, derived from the word catadupe, a reference to dead animals in the streets of Britain being picked up my storm waters.
The first record of the phrase being used was in 1651 by British poet Henry Vaughan. Who wrote a collection of poems titled Olor Iscanus.
In the poems, he referred to a roof that was secure against, “dogs and cats rained in shower."
In 1652, a British playwright named Richard Brome wrote the comedy play Citty Witt. He must have been influenced by Vaughan because he wrote, “it shall rain dogs and polecats.”
Polecats are part of the weasel family, common in Britain during that time. It seems he may have been trying to joke about the situation.
The phrase did not become popular until 1738, when Jonathan Swift published the Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversations. This was a satire about the conversations that happen among the upper class. One of his characters feared it would rain cats and dogs.
This phrase appears to be mocking the upper class and in doing so, it stuck.
Other British writers, playwright, and poets have tried other phrases like “its raining pitchforks” or “it’s raining stair rods” to describe heavy rainfall. But, the originator beat them out.
Swift's published collection wasn’t the first time he used the term. In a poem he wrote in 1710, called City Shower, he describes floods that occurred after heavy rainfall. The flooding was so strong that it left dead animals in the street. This caused people to describe the weather as raining cats and dogs.
Norse mythology consists of myths of people from north Germanic descent.
The Norse God of Storms, Odin, would often be pictured with dogs and wolves who were the symbol of wind.
Witches would ride their brooms during a storm and were often seen with a black cat as signs of heavy rain for sailors.
So, in this case the phrase raining cats and dogs could be involved with wind and heavy rain which are both prominent during strong, heavy rain events.
The cats and dogs phrase could also come from the Greek expression "cata doxa" which means contrary to experience or belief. So if it's actually raining cats and dogs, that means it's raining unbelievably or unimaginably hard.
It may be a perversion of the obsolete word "catadupe." This word usually has the same meaning in different languages, but there may be some tweaking which is expected.
In English, catadupe means cataract or waterfall. In Latin catadupe was borrowed from the Greek κατάδουποι, which referred to the cataracts or waterfalls of the Nile River. Therefore, the saying could stem from its raining waterfalls, which would still be an obscene amount of rain.
