rain

Pronunciation

• IPA: /reɪn/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English rein,^[2][3] inherited from Old English reġn (“rain”), often contracted to rēn,^[2][3][4][5] from Proto-Germanic *regną,^[2][3] which is also the source of Old Saxon regan, Old Frisian rein, Dutch and German regen, Old Norse regn and Gothic rign.^[2][3][4] It has no certain cognates outside Germanic;^[2][4] Watkins derives it from a presumed Proto-Indo-European *reg- (“moist, wet”), the possible source of Latin rigāre “to moisten”,^[2][5] but de Vaan does not suggest Germanic cognates for the Latin word.^[2] The verb is Old English regnian, usually contracted to rīnan.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Water falling in drops from the clouds: before 725, in Genesis A,^[3] and about 825 in the OED,^[6] with the compound regnwyrm “earthworm” from about 700 in the earliest Latin–English glossaries.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Figurative use of other things that fall in showers, such as blessings or tears, is from about 1200.^[2] In India the rains have meant the rainy season since 1616.^[6] To know enough to come in out of the rain is from the 1590s,^[2] and to save for a rainy day from the late 16th century.^[7] Raining cats and dogs is first found in the mid-16th century according to the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins;^[7] Etymonline dates it to 1738, and a variant with dogs and polecats to the 1650s.^[2] No convincing explanation of it has been found, and it is probably an extension of cats and dogs as proverbial for strife.^[7][2] Rain check, a ticket giving a refund if a sporting event is rained off, is American, from the late 19th century,^[7] to rain on someone's parade is from 1941,^[2] and the rain date from 1948.^[2] Rainbow, raindrop, rain shower and rainy are all Old English.^[4][2]

Timeline

• c. 700 – regnwyrm.^[3]
• before 725 – rain.^[3]
• 1116 – Middle English rein.^[3]
• c. 1200 – figurative showers.^[2]
• 1616 – the rains of India.^[6]
• 1738 – raining cats and dogs.^[2]
• 1769 – rain gauge.^[2]
• 1941 – rain on someone's parade.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Water condensed from the atmosphere and falling in drops.
2. A fall of such water; a rainstorm.
3. the rains: the rainy season in some tropical countries.
4. A heavy fall of anything: a rain of arrows.

Verb

1. To fall in drops of water from the clouds.
2. To fall, or send down, in large amounts: to rain blows.

Word family

• rainless
• rainlessness
• rainband
• rainmaking
• rainout
• rainspout
• rainsquall

Related words

• rainbow
• raindrop
• rainy
• irrigate

Usage notes

A separate rain, a ridge or strip of land between fields, from 1481, survives in dialect.^[6] In Hampshire to rain was to peel bark.^[8]

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 o p q r s Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)