Etymologically
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rainy

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Pronunciation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English reini, also reyny,[2][3] inherited from Old English rēnig, formed from Old English regn + -ig,[4][5][6] that is, rain + -y.[2][6] It matches West Frisian reinich, Middle Dutch regenich, Middle High German regnic and Swedish regnig, all formed on the Germanic base of rain;[7] Wiktionary reconstructs Proto-Germanic *regnagaz.[1] Rain itself is common Germanic, with no certain relatives outside it.[8][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of weather, climate or a period of time, marked by rain: both uses go back to Old English, the first in the poem Wulf and Eadwacer.[7][6]

Semantic evolution

Clouds or skies that bring rain are called rainy from about 1384, in the Wycliffite Bible, and a place where it often rains from before 1387.[7] Shakespeare used it in Henry V for "done in the rain", "rainy marching in the painful field", a sense the Shorter Oxford marks as rare.[7][6][9] Figuratively, eyes full of tears were rainy from 1563.[7] The rainy day of hard times, against which money is put by, is recorded by the 1570s,[2] and the English Dialect Dictionary found the saying in use across Scotland and England.[10] In Cumberland a rainy clock or clocker was a beetle believed to foretell rain.[10]

Timeline

  • Old English – rēnig, of weather and of a time of rain.[7]
  • c. 1384 – of clouds, bringing rain.[7]
  • before 1387 – of a place, where rain often falls.[7]
  • 1563 – (figurative) of eyes, tearful.[7]
  • 1570s – rainy day, a time of need.[2]
  • before 1616 – done in the rain (Shakespeare).[7]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Having a lot of rain; wet or showery: We had a rainy week in the hills.
  2. Of clouds or the sky: bringing or full of rain.
  3. for a rainy day: kept for a future time of need: She puts a little money aside for a rainy day.

Word family

  • raininess
  • rainily
  • unrainy
  • rainy day

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  6. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  10. ^ a b 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)