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pluvial

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Etymology and origin of the English word pluvial

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈpluː.vi.əl/[1]
  • US: /ˈplu.vi.əl/[1]

pluvial1 cope

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1621 R. Crakanthorpe
Borrowed from
Latin pluviale
Ultimate origin
Latin pluō

Etymology

The word for the cope is borrowed from Medieval Latin pluviāle (“rain-cloak”),[2][3][4][5][6] a noun use of the neuter of the classical Latin adjective pluviālis (“of rain, rainy”).[2][4][5] The Medieval Latin noun is recorded from the 9th century, and the OED suggests that it may be short for phrases such as capa pluvialis, frequent in British sources from before 1170 to 1416.[2] According to the OED the vestment was apparently first meant to protect the wearer from rain during processions.[2] Compare Old French pluvial, recorded before 1178, Italian piviale, from the second half of the 14th century, and German Pluviale, from 1471.[2] The Latin adjective is from pluvia (“rain”), from pluō (“to rain”).[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A long ceremonial cloak worn by a senior cleric, a cope: 1621, in R. Crakanthorpe's defence of Constantine.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

The word was also used of a similar robe of state worn by a monarch.[2][6][5] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as a priest's cope.[7] It is now obsolete except in historical use,[5] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged labels it archaic.[6]

Timeline

  • 1621 – a cleric's ceremonial cloak, a cope; also a monarch's robe of state.[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (archaic) A cope worn by a senior cleric as a ceremonial vestment; also, a similar robe of state worn by a monarch.[6][5][2]

pluvial2 rainy

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1651 T. Vaughan, Lumen de Lumine
Borrowed from
Latin pluvialis
Ultimate origin
Latin pluō
Etymology tree of pluvial2
inherited borrowed derived
Latin pluō
Latin pluvius
Latin pluvia
Spanish lluvia
Latin pluviālis
English pluvial

Etymology

The word for the adjective meaning rainy is borrowed from Latin pluviālis (“characterized by rain, rainy, consisting of rain”),[2][6][8][9][5][4] from pluvia (“rain”),[2][10][4][11] short for aqua pluvia (“rain water”),[4][10][11] a noun use of the feminine of pluvius (“rainy”),[2][10][4][11] from pluō (“to rain”),[4][6][5] with the suffix -ālis.[2][12] Etymonline and Barnhart take it as partly borrowed from French pluvial,[10][11] while the OED only compares the French adjective, recorded in the sense "rainy" from 1488, and Spanish pluvial, from about 1250 or earlier.[2] The Latin verb is from Proto-Indo-European *plew- (“to flow”),[10][4] the source also of Old English flōwan (“to flow”), the ancestor of flow.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of or relating to rain; rainy: 1651, in T. Vaughan's Lumen de Lumine.[2][6] Barnhart's first record is 1656, in Blount's Glossographia.[11]

Semantic evolution

The word replaced in part an older adjective, pluvious, which Etymonline finds from the mid-15th century and Barnhart probably about 1440.[10][11] In the 19th century geologists used it for what is caused or formed by rain (1851, in Lyell),[2] and since 1868 for periods of relatively high rainfall in low and middle latitudes, especially during the Pleistocene;[2] such a period has been called a pluvial since 1929.[2]

Timeline

  • 1651 – of or relating to rain; rainy.[2][6] Barnhart dates it to 1656.[11]
  • 1851 – in physical geography, caused or formed by rain.[2] Etymonline dates this use to 1859.[10]
  • 1868 – of a period of relatively high rainfall, especially in the Pleistocene.[2]
  • 1929 – noun, a pluvial period.[2]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Of, relating to or marked by rain; rainy: a pluvial spring that flooded the valley.[13][6][2]
  2. (geology) Caused by the action of rain or rainwater, or relating to rainfall.[13][6][2]
  3. Of a period of relatively high rainfall in the geological past.[2][5]

Noun

  1. A long period of wet climate, especially one in regions without glaciers during the Pleistocene.[13][6][2]

Word family

  • interpluvial

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  11. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  13. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Pluvial.” Etymologically, 8 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/pluvial. Accessed 9 Nov. 2026.

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