how cats and dogs are described as pouring rain
By Lucky Roo
@youfiq (2564)
United States
January 2, 2021 7:16pm CST
idiom is really weird yeah, I know cats and dogs are always hostile, in movies especially films. but in the real world they get along so well, some even walk through narrow alleys hand in hand. Was their hostility in the film so intense that Cat scratches and dog barks were so intense they depicted heavy rain?
3 people like this
4 responses
@owlwings (43897)
• Cambridge, England
3 Jan 21
I don't think that anyone knows the real reason for the saying.
There have been various theories but the one I consider most likely is that the Greek 'kata doxa' means 'beyond belief' and, since Greek and Latin scholars will sometimes use phrases from these languages in normal speech, it is possible that an ordinary person hearing a learned person exclaim "It's raining 'kata doxa'!" might mistake it for "It's raining cats and dogs!" and think it such a curious and odd thing to say that they ever afterwards used it and so did others until it eventually became a common expression.
You can see some other explanations from no less a source than the Library of Congress here:
We don’t know. The phrase might have its roots in Norse mythology, medieval superstitions, the obsolete word catadupe (waterfall), or dead animals in the streets of Britain being picked up by storm waters. Very unpleasant weather. George Cruikshank, 1820.
2 people like this
@kaylachan (84815)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
3 Jan 21
I'm not sure where the saying started, but raining cats and dogs usually indicates heavy rainfall. Not so much that they're fighting. Though there's a grain of truth, that some cat and dogs just don't get along.
2 people like this
@hereandthere (45628)
• Philippines
3 Jan 21
that's why things can't always be translated literally from english to non-english and vice versa. you end up describing things in different ways so people can understand and/or relate to what you're saying or writing.
1 person likes this
