WEATHERWISE CATS, CATS AND SAILORS

"Raining cats and dogs" is another saying with multiple roots. The least likely of these is that it comes from the Greek "catadupa" meaning torrent. Well-to-do English families sometimes spoke Greek as an affectation and others might copy this affectation; eventually "raining catadupa" became "raining cats and dogs".

In mythology, cats and dogs are associated with aspects of storms; so foul weather might be "cat and dog weather". Witches were supposed to ride the wind during storms in the form of cats. In Norse mythology the storm god Odin had dogs as attendants. In Japan, tortoiseshell tomcats (rare as they only occur due to genetic anomalies) were once prized as ship's cats by skippers and boat owners as charms against bad weather.

Or is there a more literal meaning? Centuries ago, heavy rain could turn narrow city streets into rivers. Stray cats and dogs that lived off street garbage drowned as water swept through the streets and people seeing the bodies thought that the animals had come down with the rain. One explanation is that raining cats and dogs originated in 17th Century England when city streets were then filthy and heavy rain would carry along dead animals. Richard Brome's "The City Witt" (1652) contains the line "It shall rain dogs and polecats" (polecats are related to ferrets). A similar derivation comes from the fact that cats may have taken shelter in the thatched straw roofs of cottages. In a heavy downpour they would have been flooded out and chased by the local dogs on the ground below.

Cats have long been associated with ships - as ratters and as mascots. The spread of polydactyl cats (more common on the west coast of Britain and the east coast of the USA) is thought to be due to "lucky" six-toes cats being carried between Britain and America. Many "catty" sayings are traced to the cat-o-nine-tails whip used on ships as detailed earlier on.

Dick Whittington's cat was more likely a ship than a feline. A "cat" or "catch" (variation of "ketch") is a strongly built coal-ship ship with a narrow stern, projecting quarters, and deep waist. Sir Richard Whittington made his money by trading in coals, which he would have conveyed in his "cat" from Newcastle to London. The coal-dusted black faces of his workmen would have given rise to tales about the Moors (Arabs). Coal was first traded from Newcastle to London in 1381 and Whittington became Lord Mayor in 1397 - plenty of time for him to have made a good profit from his "cat".