Equally, it could be derived from the old French word catadupe<\/em>, which meant waterfall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An old theory was that in heavy rain, dead animals would often be washed out of drainage systems on 17th century buildings in Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There’s no conclusive answer. It may just be that it was a funny expression that caught on and became popular. We’ll probably never know…<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Britain it also rains buckets, stair rods, tacks and pitchforks… But did you know that in other areas of the world, it rains other things?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our favourites are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Czech:<\/strong><\/a> Padaj\u00ed traka\u0159e<\/p>\n\n\n\n Welsh:<\/strong><\/a> Mae hi’n bwrw cyllyll a ffyrc<\/p>\n\n\n\n Danish:<\/strong><\/a> Det regner skomagerdrenge<\/p>\n\n\n\n Icelandic:<\/strong><\/a> \u00dea\u00f0 rignir eld og brennustein<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Norwegian:<\/strong><\/a> Det regner trollkjerringer<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spanish:<\/strong><\/a> Est\u00e1n lloviendo maridos<\/p>\n\n\n\n Afrikaans:<\/strong><\/a> Ou vrouens met knopkieries reen (by the way, a knobkierrie is a kind of African club!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brazilian Portuguese<\/a><\/strong>: Chovem cobras e lagartos<\/p>\n\n\n\n Polish<\/a><\/strong>: Leje zabami<\/p>\n\n\n\n We’d love to know where some of these expressions came from, so if anyone has any information, please share it in the comments!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ‘It\u2019s raining cats and dogs!’ is a common British phrase meaning that it\u2019s raining particularly hard. There are various theories as to where the expression came from – although there’s no evidence that it’s ever actually happened! It may come from the Greek expression cata doxa. This means ‘contrary to experience or belief’ and might … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[300,273,201,248,249,32,301,302,53,251,303,8,172,266],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1305"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1305"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8899,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1305\/revisions\/8899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}‘It’s raining wheelbarrows’<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
‘It\u2019s raining knives and forks’<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
‘It’s raining shoemakers\u2019 apprentices’<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
‘It’s raining fire and brimstone’<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Fire](\"https:\/\/eurotalk.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/brimstone-300x144.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n‘It’s raining lady trolls’<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
‘It’s raining husbands’<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
‘It\u2019s raining old women with knobkerries’<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
‘It’s raining snakes and lizards’<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
‘It’s raining frogs’<\/h3>\n\n\n\n