Cross Breeds

What is the origin of this expression: It is raining cats and dogs.?

It is doing just that at the moment in Alexandria. @ Hope: what a nice and informative explanation!!!! Like always.

Public Comments

1. Cute q..... i always thought that since cats and dogs like to chase each other, so heavy rain looks like one droplet chasing the other.... hence cats and dogs running after each other..... LOL But actually i think it has sthg to do with mythology, like sailors used to associate cats with heavy rainfall and dogs with loud storm noises, so it came to be raining cats and dogs. Others say that during the old times, when there was a big huge storm, the cats and the dogs would drown in the rain fall and when the water levels had subsided, their bodies would be everywhere on the ground so hence cats and dogs rain. I think there were other reasons taught to us, but these are the ones i remembered. Yabakhtouko 3la el rain.... wish i was there with u in Alex. xoxo
2. I heard that when it rains heavily cats and dogs resting at roofs fall. There is resemblance.
3. It means: Raining very heavily. This is an interesting phrase in that, although there's no definitive origin, there are proposed derivations. The phrase isn't related to the well-known antipathy between dogs and cats, which is exemplified in the phrase 'fight like cat and dog'. One supposed origin is that the phrase derives from mythology. Dogs and wolves were attendants to Odin, the god of storms, and sailors associated them with rain. It has also been suggested that cats and dogs were washed from roofs during heavy weather. This is a widely repeated tale. Another suggestion is that 'raining cats and dogs' comes from a version of the French word 'catadoupe', meaning waterfall. 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. It's just a rather expressive phrase giving a graphic impression of heavy rain - as is 'raining cats and dogs'. The much more probable source of 'raining cats and dogs' is the prosaic fact that, in the filthy streets of 17th/18th century England, heavy rain would occasionally carry along dead animals and other debris. The animals didn't fall from the sky, but the sight of dead cats and dogs floating by in storms could well have caused the coining of this colourful phrase. Jonathan Swift described such an event in his satirical poem 'A Description of a City Shower', first published in the 1710 collection of the Tatler magazine. The poem was a denunciation of contemporary London society and its meaning has been much debated. While the poem is metaphorical and doesn't describe a specific flood, it seems that, in describing water-borne animal corpses, Swift was referring to an occurrence that his readers would have been well familiar with: Now in contiguous Drops the Flood comes down, Threat'ning with Deluge this devoted Town. ... Now from all Parts the swelling Kennels flow, And bear their Trophies with them as they go: Filth of all Hues and Odours seem to tell What Street they sail'd from, by their Sight and Smell. They, as each Torrent drives, with rapid Force, From Smithfield or St. Pulchre's shape their Course, And in huge Confluent join'd at Snow-Hill Ridge, Fall from the Conduit, prone to Holbourn-Bridge. Sweeping from Butchers Stalls, Dung, Guts, and Blood, Drown'd Puppies, stinking Sprats, all drench'd in Mud, Dead Cats and Turnip-Tops come tumbling down the Flood.