Old Wives Tales

A few will be aware I have been known to speak on various subjects over the years. Fundamentally these all revolve around my favourite subject of etymology. Have always enjoyed bringing this fascinating subject to others. It’s not for me to say whether the audiences have, although many have asked me to return.

Thought it might be worthwhile sharing a snippet or two from these etymological presentations, continuing with Old Wives Tales. I can't tell you who the old wife was or why she had so many strange ideas, but I can tell you a whole host of ideas which until quite recently were considered all part of life's lessons. There are also those which, with the best will in the world, will dumbfound as to why anyone would ever find these 'truths' credible. There is a PowerPoint presentation to accompany this talk if required.

Walking under a ladder. The most obvious reason is in case someone up the ladder drops something on you. Yet the most oft repeated story comes from the medieval idea of the triangle formed by the ladder, wall and floor was seen as representative of the Holy Trinity and to walk through was to break it.

Opening an umbrella inside is a major taboo and another which is among the most often quoted. Of course it is utter gibberish and, statistically speaking, there is no evidence to suggest opening an umbrella indoors has brought about any more woes than opening it outside or never even owning one. Prior to researching this myth the author assumed it to be a modern idea, simply because the umbrella was a modern invention. Yet there are images from the ancient city of Nineveh, which dates from as far back as 6000BC, depicting same. In truth the earliest umbrellas were actually parasols, designed to shade from the sun, and would never close nor would they ever prove particularly useful if used to create a personal and portable rain shelter. Opening umbrellas date from the nineteenth century, the earliest being much larger than today as they were designed to cover a man, his wife and their children. Houses were also much smaller in those days and opening the umbrella indoors was probably considered bad as doing so would be almost certain to break something. Thus for most of its existence it has not been unlucky to open an umbrella indoors, it has been impossible.

Placing a hat on a bed is unacceptable and sure to bring misfortune. Certain to bring bad luck it seems but the origin of this idea is not certain at all, there being many ideas as to why. The most obvious is probably because it is disrespectful to wear a hat indoors and nobody would wear a hat in bed. There is also the idea that a hat is normally not the cleanest item worn, it costs to have a hat cleaned properly, and thus could harbour pests and particularly lice. Those pests are not what would be welcome in a bed.

If you think you know someone who would like to hear me speak on this subject, drop me a line.

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.