# Explain this French idiom? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 16, 2003, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-french-idiom/188762 "2003-07-16T00:14:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![NoGoodNamesLeft](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/8797f3/32.png) [@NoGoodNamesLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoGoodNamesLeft)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-french-idiom/188762/1 "2003-07-16T00:14:22Z")
How did the French phrase “Il tombe des cordes” come to mean ‘heavy rain?’. ---
**Author:** ![sunfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/96bed5/32.png) [@sunfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunfish)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-french-idiom/188762/2 "2003-07-16T01:17:48Z")
I learned it as “il pleut des cordes,” basically translated as “it’s raining ropes.” Personally, it’s easier for me to make the connection between heavy rain falling and the image of thin silvery ropes than it is to explain the phrase “it’s raining cats and dogs.” ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-french-idiom/188762/3 "2003-07-16T04:06:53Z")
It’s not unlike the English idiom “it’s coming down in sheets.” ---
**Author:** ![Orange\_Skinner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3be4f8/32.png) [@Orange\_Skinner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orange_Skinner)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-french-idiom/188762/4 "2003-07-16T06:16:12Z")
I think it makes sense. “It’s falling in ropes” implies rain so heavy that it’s falling in thick, solid lines, similar to, “it’s coming down in sheets,” as **nametag** said. It certainly makes more sense than “It’s raining cats and dogs.” ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-french-idiom/188762/5 "2003-07-16T07:15:21Z")
Another similar English one would be 'coming down like stair rods". ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-french-idiom/188762/6 "2003-07-16T07:58:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by sunfish \* > \*\*Personally, it’s easier for me to make the connection between heavy rain falling and the image of thin silvery ropes than it is to explain the phrase “it’s raining cats and dogs.” \*\* The phrase “cat and dog” originally meant anything furious, as you might imagine a fight between a cat and dog. So “it’s raining cats and dogs” means that it is raining furiously. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-french-idiom/188762/7 "2003-07-16T08:17:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Walloon \* > \*\*The phrase “cat and dog” originally meant anything furious, as you might imagine a fight between a cat and dog. So “it’s raining cats and dogs” means that it is raining furiously. \*\* Of the numerous attempts that I’ve seen to explain this phrase, that is the first one that actually sounds believable. I don’t suppose you have such a thing as a cite, do you? ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-french-idiom/188762/8 "2003-07-16T08:21:33Z")
Oxford English Dictionary, **WotNot**. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-french-idiom/188762/9 "2003-07-16T08:24:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Walloon \* > \*\*The phrase “cat and dog” originally meant anything furious, as you might imagine a fight between a cat and dog. So “it’s raining cats and dogs” means that it is raining furiously. \*\* [Cecil](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a901207a.html) seems to think it is not so cut-and-dried: [quote] …there are many competing explanations. A sample: [ol][li]It comes from the Greek catadupe, waterfall. In other words, it’s coming down in cataracts. [/li][li]It comes from the Latin cata doxas, contrary to experience, i.e., it’s raining unusually hard. [/li][li]In Germanic mythology cats were associated with storms and rain, whereas dogs were attendants of Odin the storm god and were symbols of the winds. Ergo, raining cats and dogs means you have a lot of wind (the dogs’ department) and rain (the cats’ bailiwick). [/li][li]In medieval London stormwater would sluice down the narrow streets and drown stray cats and dogs, whose corpses would then be discovered in the gutters afterward by the emerging humans. Aha! they said, it must have rained C&D[/ol][/li][/quote] ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-french-idiom/188762/10 "2003-07-16T10:00:53Z")
Well, Cecil isn’t perfect. 1. Cecil seems to have ignored the OED’s explanation of the phrase _cat and dog_: “Referring to the proverbial emnity between the two animals: _attrib._ Full of strife, inharmonious; quarrelsome.” 2. Cecil does not address the history of how the phrase “cat and dog” was used. Its earliest uses are _not_ weather related, but are used in a general sense to mean “furiously”. Examples given in the OED: **1579** Gosson: “He . . . shall see them agree like Dogges and Cattes.” before **1745** Swift: "They keep at Staines the old Blue Boar, Are cat and dog, and rogue and whore. **1821** Scott: “Married he was . . . and a cat-and-dog life she led with Tony.” **1822** Cobbett: “The fast-sinking Old Times newspaper, its cat-and-dog opponent the New Times.” The usage of the phrase “cat and dog” has become limited over the centuries, and today is used only in the phrase “raining like cats and dogs”.