Etymologically
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cloud

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /klaʊd/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English cloude, inherited from Old English clūd (“mass of rock, hill”),[2][3][4] probably related to clod and clot.[2][5][6] Barnhart and MWU relate it to Greek gloutós “buttock”.[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A mass of rock, a hill: about 893 in the OED and Barnhart.[7][3] This sense was last recorded in Middle English about 1475.[2]

Semantic evolution

The modern sense, a visible mass of condensed vapour in the sky, appears about 1300 in southern texts, a metaphor from the likeness of cumulus clouds to rock masses.[2][7][6] The usual Old English word for a cloud was weolcan, the source of welkin, and in Middle English skie also meant “cloud”.[2][3] A cloud-like mass of smoke or dust is from the late 14th century.[2] Figuratively, something that darkens or threatens, it is from about 1300, with under a cloud from about 1500.[2] In the clouds, removed from reality, is from the 1640s.[2] The verb, to darken with clouds, is from the early 15th century (before 1420 in Barnhart),[2][3] to obscure from 1513,[7] and to grow cloudy from 1562.[7][4] On cloud nine is from the mid-20th century, perhaps from the numbering of cloud types.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 893 – a mass of rock, hill.[7][3]
  • c. 1300 – a cloud in the sky.[2]
  • late 14th century – a mass of smoke or dust.[2]
  • early 15th century – verb, to darken.[2]
  • c. 1500 – under a cloud.[2]
  • 1562 – to become cloudy.[7][4]
  • 1640s – in the clouds.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A visible mass of water droplets or ice crystals floating in the sky.
  2. A mass of smoke, dust or steam in the air.
  3. A large number of things moving together, as insects.
  4. Something that causes gloom or suspicion.

Verb

  1. To cover or become covered with clouds.
  2. To make something unclear or confused: cloud one's judgment.
  3. To make gloomy or troubled.

Word family

  • cloudless
  • cloudlike
  • clod
  • clot
  • welkin

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press