Quite a lot of rain has fallen over the past day or so in the UK, thanks to Storm Angus, so I thought I’d look at the origins of some rain-related words.
The word rain comes from the Old English rēn/reġn (rain), from the Proto-Germanic *regnaz (rain), possibly from the Proto-Indo-European *Hreǵ- (to flow) or from *reg- (moist, wet).
When rain falls heavily it might be called torrential – it certainly was yesterday – a word which comes from torrent (rapid stream), from the Middle French torrent, from Latin torrentem from torrēns (rushing, roaring (of streams); a rushing stream), a word which originally meant “roaring, boiling, burning, parching, hot, inflamed”, and which is the present participle of torrere (to parch).
With heavy rain you get floods, a word which comes from the Old English flōd (a flowing of water, tide, an overflowing of land by water, a deluge, mass of water, river, sea, wave)”, from the Proto-Germanic *floduz (flowing water, deluge), from the Proto-Indo-European root *pleu- (to flow, float, swim), which is also the root of flow.
Sources: Online Etymology Dictionary, Wiktionary, Daily Post
Here’s a video of the sea being rather lively at Colwyn Bay (from the Daily Post).
It wasn’t just raining cats and dogs, but elephants and hippopotamuses too – that’s what it felt like anyway.
More idioms for heavy rain in various languages.
Do you know any interesting expressions for heavy rain?