傾盆大雨 Rain Cats and Dogs

Rain Cats and Dogs

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Like many other phrases contained in these pages, the origin of this phrase is unknown. Its first recorded use is by Jonathan Swift in Polite Conversation, written circa 1708 and published thirty years later. This work of Swift's is a satire on the use of cliché, so the phrase was probably in use for a considerable period before this.

Rawson reports an earlier variant, "rain dogs and polecats," from Richard Brome's The City Witt of 1652. Suggestions for its origin include:

· The archaic French catdoupe, meaning waterfall or cataract.

· The thunder and lightning are akin to the sound of a cat-and-dog fight.

· In northern mythology, cats had an influence on the weather, and Odin, the storm god, was attended to by dogs and wolves.

All of these are unlikely given the Brome cite. Since the earliest English language variation starts with "polecat" as opposed to "cat," the idea that it descends from catdoupe is unlikely. Similarly, since polecats are not cats, but rather weasels or skunks, the connotation with mythological properties of felines is similarly unlikely.

Yet another explanation is that in old London a hard rain would fill the streets with water and drown many stray dogs and cats. Thus when the rain stopped and the water was gone, it looked as if it had rained cats and dogs. It sounds plausible, but the early use of the phrase with polecats make it unlikely.

So, the mystery remains with no good explanations.

傾盆大雨

像許多出現(xiàn)在這些頁中的其他短語一樣，Rain Cats and Dogs（傾盆大雨）這一短語的出處也不得而知。有記載的用法首次出現(xiàn)在朱納森·斯威夫特所著的《禮貌會話》一書中，該書大約寫于1708年，三十年后才出版。斯威夫特的著作是諷刺一些陳詞濫調(diào)的，因此，上述短語在斯威夫特寫書相當長一段時間就已經(jīng)在用了。

羅森指出，該短語有更早的一種變體，“Rain Dogs and Pole cats”，（“下狗和雞貂”），來自理查德·

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