downpour

Etymology

The noun is formed from English down + pour,^[2][3][4] after the phrase “to pour down”.^[4][2] The OED takes the first part as the prefix down- and the second as the noun pour;^[4] Etymonline as the adverb and the verb.^[2] A verb downpour, to pour down, is much older, recorded from before 1522,^[4] and the noun downpouring is recorded from 1669.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A heavy, continuous fall of rain: 1811, in J. MacDonald's General View of the Agriculture of the Hebrides.^[4][2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives 1801 as the first known use,^[5] and Dictionary.com dates the word 1805–15.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The noun has kept its first meaning, a heavy shower of rain, and is also used of anything that streams down, such as sunlight.^[4][5] The verb downpour it was modelled on was chiefly poetic: it meant to pour down, intransitively, in Gavin Douglas's translation of the Aeneid (before 1522), and to cause something to pour down from 1599.^[4][6] A North American use of the verb with an impersonal it ("it is downpouring"), meaning that it is raining heavily, was formed from the noun and is recorded from 1956.^[4]

Timeline

• before 1522 – the verb downpour, to pour down, in Gavin Douglas's translation of the Aeneid.^[4]
• 1599 – the verb, transitive, to cause something to pour down.^[4]
• 1811 – the noun, a heavy, continuous fall of rain.^[4][2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives 1801.^[5]
• 1956 – the verb with impersonal it, of heavy rain, in North America.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A heavy, drenching fall of rain: The match was abandoned after a sudden downpour.^[7][5][4]
2. A pouring or streaming down of anything, as of sunlight.^[5][4]

Verb

1. (chiefly poetic) To pour down, or to make something pour down.^[4][6]

Word family

• downpouring

Related words

• downfall
• pour

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin