Colloquialisms and Clouds

摘要

While weather jargon might on the surface seem to be the purview of meteorologists and scientists, weather-related expressions and colloquialisms have actually been popping up in everyday language for centuries. From the importance of weather as a character in some of the earliest pieces of Western literature to the newest examples of weather jargon entering our language, people have a tendency to use the weather we see every day to describe our lives. Meteorological reports about wind, rain, thunder, lightning, waterspouts, and even a microburst are found in the oldest oral traditions and literature. Weather is a driving force throughout The Odyssey, which has a reasonable claim as the foundation of Western literature. Other popular tomes through the years, such as the Bible and, later, many of Shakespeare's plays, frequently use wind and weather metaphors but also allude to the actual weather of their times.