What are the origins of the phrase "raining cats and dogs"?

Question

What are the origins of the phrase "raining cats and dogs"?

Answer 1

In 1653 Richard Brome, in _The City of Wit,_ wrote, "It shall raine...dogs and polecats." So maybe Brome came up with it. Otherwise, I don't know. I suspect the responder who said dead animals washed up when rivers overflowed is right. There seems to be an allusion to this fact in Jonathan Swift's writing somewhere but I can't place it. (Swift died in 1745 so was later than Brome.)

Joke:

HE  :  It's raining cats and dogs.

SHE:  I know. I just stepped in a poodle.

Answer 2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raining_ani...

Answer 3

in the filthy streets of 17th/18th century England, heavy rain would occasionally carry along dead animals and other debris. The animals didn't fall from the sky, but the sight of dead cats and dogs floating by in storms could well have caused the coining of this colourful phrase

Answer 4

It all started on the day in 1860 when it actually did.

Answer 5

Back in the day animals would find shelter on the roofs of people's homes (which were usually made out of thicket or brush-like material). When it rained, especially, they would hide up there and many times would fall down (b/c of the slickness) hence, "It's raining cats and dogs." True story.

Answer 6

The phrase cannot be traced back to any specific answer.

There are many believed orgins.

One supposed origin is that the phrase derives from mythology. Dogs and wolves were attendants to Odin, the god of storms, and sailors associated them with rain. Witches, who often took the form of their familiars - cats, are supposed to have ridden the wind

It has also been suggested that cats and dogs were washed from roofs during heavy weather.  This is nonsense of course.  In order to believe this tale we would have to accept that dogs lived in thatched roofs, which, of course, they didn't. Even accepting that bizarre idea, for dogs to have slipped off when it rained they would have needed to be sitting on the outside of the thatch - hardly the place an animal would head for as shelter in bad weather.

Another suggestion is that 'raining cats and dogs' comes from a version of the French word 'catadoupe', meaning waterfall.

The much more probable source of 'raining cats and dogs' is the prosaic fact that, in the filthy streets of 17th/18th century England, heavy rain would occasionally carry along dead animals and other debris. The animals didn't fall from the sky, but the sight of dead cats and dogs floating by in storms could well have caused the coining of this colourful phrase.