Rain Idioms

Several words have become part of the language in being used in phrases. Last time we looked at ‘sun’ and now look at ‘rain’.

Rain dance is seen from 1867, although surely such rituals were performed for centuries or even millennia.

Rain date is first found in 1948, probably more commonly used in the USA, it refers to an alternative date for outdoor events interrupted by rain.

Amazingly the quite complex phrase, always used as an insult, “doesn’t know enough to come in out of the rain’ is recorded as early as 1590.

Rain gauge, that instrument which measures rainfall at a specific point and which you probably haven’t heard of since your school days, is found from 1769.

Nobody ‘rained on another’s parade’ until 1941.

It has been raining cats and dogs since 1738 – and earlier still, from around 1650, it rained dogs and polecats. (Well it would, of course!)

Nobody spoke of a rain cloud until around the end of the 18th century – which begs the question as to where they thought the rain came from?

Nothing was described as rainproof until 1788.

The rain forest is unrecorded before 1899, when it is deemed to have been a translation from the German Regenwald mentioned in A.F.Schimper’s work Pflanzengeographic.

Rainbows have been known since before the beginning of Old English, hence at least two millennia. The Saxons, who spoke Old English, also had the term scurboga or ‘showerbow’.

Rainbow trout are first recorded as such in 1876.

Raincoats are first seen in 1821…..

…. which is 37 years before anyone wrote down ‘rainfall’….

…. and 17 years after ‘rainstorm’ is first recorded.

Rain check was first seen in 1884 and described a ticket given to a spectator who could claim a refund or admission to a replayed game postponed through rain.

Hit Idioms

Several words have found themselves used in a number of phrases. We looked at 'foot' last time and this time it's 'hit'.

Hit it off dates from as early as 1780, and was used the same as the modern 'hit on' only from 1970.

Hit the nail on the head is recorded as early as 1570, but had nothing to do with hammers. This was an archery reference.

Hit the hay is first seen in 1912, which is strange as by then few mattresses would have been stuffed with hay.

Hit the bricks dates from 1909. Not heard today, it was trade union slang and referred to going on strike.

Hit (someone) up, to request something of someone, dates from 1917.

Not know what hit them is first seen in print in 1923.

Hit the road appears in print for the first time in 1873.

Hit and run has had no less than three lives. The vehicular reference is first seen in 1924; later this was also used for a military strike, first appearing in 1940; but the earliest, and probably the most obvious, is the baseball reference from 1899.

Hit the bottle is not seen before 1933, although 'hit the booze' had been in use since at least 1899.

Hit song/record/film/ etc dates as early as 1811, when it was used to refer to plays and shows.

Homonyms, Etymologically Speaking: P

Many words have two meanings, sometimes more, which are often very different. Such words have identical spelling and pronunciation, they are known as homonyms. Here I continue an A to Z list of such words and look at how that word came to have two different meanings.

P is for palm, which is either a tree or a part of the hand. The body part is not recorded until around 1300, it came to English from Old French paume and Latin palma 'the flat of the hand'. Both are derived from Proto-Indo-European pele 'flat, to spread' and for obvious reasons.

The tree or the word for the tree, correctly known as the date palm, spread to Western Europe along with Christianity. It is thought to describe the leaves of the tree which have a spreading effect like the fingers on the hand.

The sense of 'palm' meaning a bribe is seen as early as 1620, but then the term was 'palm oil'.

Homonyms, Etymologically Speaking: D

Many words have two meanings, sometimes more, which are often very different. Such words have identical spelling and pronunciation, they are known as homonyms. Here I continue an A to Z list of such words and look at how that word came to have two different meanings.

D is for date, not only a part of the calendar but also a fruit. Taking the calendar term first, it came to English from French date with the modern meaning, and no surprise to find this coming from Latin data meaning 'to give', and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European do also 'to give'. Meanwhile the fruit can be traced to Old French date, Old Provencal datil, Latin dactylus, Greek daktylos, all of which are easy to recognise as being related to the words for the hand. Whether this refers to the resemblance of the fruit to fingers/thumbs, or whether the leaf of the date palm resembles the palm of the hand is still being argued.

Happy New Year. Is it really 2012?

1st January and it is 2012 (MMXII), but only on the Gregorian calendar. While I was aware of the existence of others, until I examined the subject in more detail I had no idea just how many different calendars there are. The following are a selection and include some explanation as to who, where and why.

Ab urbe condita and the year is 2765, not exactly the most widely used calendar and important only to historians with an interest in Rome for the name is Latin for 'from the founding of the city (of Rome)'.

Armenian calendar gives this as 1461, a solar calendar based on 365 days in a year. Twelve months of 30 days each with another five days which belong to no month. Year 1 began on 11th July AD552 in the Julian Calendar.

Assyrian calendar it is now 6762 as the calendar began in the equivalent of 4750BC, the year the first temple was established as Ashur.

Bahai calendar says 168, as the Bahai Era began on 21st March 1844.

Bengali calendar and the year is 1419, the Bengali era beginning with the rule of King Shoshangko.

Berber calendar this year is 2962, adjusted in the 1960s so year 1 was set to 950 BC, the approximate date of the first Libyan pharoah in Egypt.

British regnal year and today 60 Eliz 2, it will become 61 on February 6th, the day after the death of George VI and Queen Elizabeth II's accession to the throne.

Buddhist calendar it is now 2556, dating from when the Buddha attained nirvana.

Burmese calendar the year is 1374 as it began 638 years after the Christian calendar.

Byzantine calendar this year is now 7520, the date of creation given as September 1st 5509 BC.

Chinese calendar says 4648, although there is no agreement as to when the calendar began it is traditionally held to have been invented by Emperor Huang-di in the 61st year of his reign.

Coptic calendar lists this as 1728, based on a reform of the ancient Egyptian calendar.

Ethiopian calendar makes this 2004, a calendar based on the Annunciation or Incarnation of Jesus as given by the Julian Calndar, which equates to 25th March 9AD

Hebrew calendar comes out as 5772, no surprisingly the number of years considered to have passed since the beginning of the world.

Hindu calendar of Bikram Samwat is 2068, as established by the Indian emperor Vikramaditya of Ujjain follwing his victory over the Sakas in 56 BC.

Hindu calendar of Shaka Samwat gives this as 1934, where the year was set to zero (not one) in the year 78 of the Saka year. However this was not decided until as recently as March 22nd 1957.

Hindu calendar of Kali Yuga reads 5113, literally 'the age of the female demon Kali' or perhaps 'the age of vice'. Hence is said to be the age of the world, which began on 23rd January 3102BC

Holocene calendar reads 12012, clearly exactly 10,000 years before the Gregorian calendar and given as the beginning of the Holocene epoch, the Neolithic revolution, and thus seen as the Human Era.

Iranian calendar reads 1390, roughly corresponding to the calendar of Zoroastrian cosmology with a starting point in the period of the Achaemenid Empire.

Islamic calendar states 1433, counting beginning with the emigration of the prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Medina.

Japanese calendar reads 24, or correctly Heisei 24 the reign of the current empreror. However the Japanese also use the Imperial Year system, which would then make this the first day of 2772, while officially using the Gregorian calendar.

Korean calendar is seen as 4345, counted from the foundation of Gojoseon in 2333 BC, although officially the Gregorian Calendar has been used for some time.

Minguo calendar says this is ROC 101, the 101st yeat of the Republic of China (Minguo meaning literally 'the Country of the People'.

Thai solar calendar reads 2555, today counted in the Buddhist era as 543 years greater than the Christian Era.

Unix time states 1325376000, my personal favourite and one I use whenever I receive a phone call from some organisation who demand my date of birth when trying to 'go through security'. There are no years, months, days, hours or minutes in Unix time, only seconds. It began at midnight on Thursday 1st January 1970 GMT (Greenwich Mean Time), today referred to as UTC (Coordinated Universal Time).