What's the Origin of ''It's Raining Cats and Dogs''?

What's the Origin of ''It's Raining Cats and Dogs''?

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Story Published: Apr 21, 2003 at 9:09 PM PDT

Story Updated: Mar 13, 2008 at 1:13 PM PDT

By Steve Pool

SEATTLE - Seattleites should be well versed with the phrase, but Jermaine wondered what the origin was.

Our search of the Internet found plenty of theories, but no definitive answer. Some seemed to center on ancient Greek. One place said the word cat is derived from the Greek word 'catadupe', meaning "waterfall". That's great, but where's the dog?

Another site had a 17th century British origin, where one writer used the phrase when heavy rains would wash dead animals down the streets.

But on a brighter (and cleaner) note: the most popular explanation seems to stem from Northern European Myths that symbolized cats with rain and dogs with wind. Thus, a heavy rain storm with strong winds were: "it's cats and dogs out there."

Check out more theories here:

www.word-detective.com
www.quinion.com
phrases.shu.ac.uk

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