Hasty Angels and the Word History of Precipitation

Hello,

It’s a wet Monday here. The forecast is for rain all day long. The puddles are forming in my garden and my walking shoes are glaring at me, daring me to test their water-proof-ness.

Instead of sloshing through puddles, I’ll take a look at the word history of precipitation. My first association with the word is as an alternative term for rain, but of course it covers all types of atmospheric moisture deposited on the earth’s surface including snow, dew, frost, hail, etc.

This idea of precipitation being a form of water falling from the sky dates to the 1600s but the word itself is older. It joined English in the late 1400s and was originally spelled as precipitacioun. I love those old spellings, don’t you?

It arrived with two meanings. One was the casting down of rebellious angels from heaven. Lucifer was precipitated from heaven, for example. The other was used in alchemy where precipitation was the separation of a solid from a solution. My eldest is now studying chemistry at university and he would know all about that. I hope he does this in a slow careful manner rather than with undue haste.

Precipitation was borrowed into English from Old French and before that came from Latin praecipitationem (falling headlong or being hasty) from praeceps (steep, headlong, headfirst). Praeceps is formed by joining prae (before) with caput (head). Put the two together and you definitely get the idea of going head-first with some degree of speed, as an angel might when falling from a great height.

Until next time happy reading, writing, and wordfooling,

Grace (@Wordfoolery)

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Dreaming of the Dog Days – Weather Words

Hello,

As I near completion of the first draft of “Words the Weather Gave Us” the weather has taken a turn for cold these days. The thermometer has dropped and heavier sweaters are looking tempting. As a result I’m dreaming of the Dog Days. Here’s an extract to let you know what I mean.

Local sunflower meadow in High Summer

{Extract from “Words the Weather Gave Us” by Grace Tierney copyright 2022}

Dog days are midsummer days of great warmth and we have the Romans to thank for the expression, with perhaps a little borrowing from the ancient Greeks.

The Romans called the hottest weeks of the summer caniculares dies. They believed that the Dog Star rising with the sun added to its heat and hence the dog days (3-11 July, although calculations vary depending on your location) suffered under their combined heat. Having been lucky enough to visit Rome during that time period, I can understand why the Romans espoused that theory. Thank goodness for all the wonderful old water fountains for refilling your bottle.

The Dog Star, Sirius, is the brightest star usually visible from Earth. It is so-named thanks to its position in the Big Dog constellation, also known as Alpha Canis Majoris. It should be dogs plural though as it’s a binary star, consisting of Sirius A and Sirius B.

The expression has been part of English since the 1500s. The date of Sirius rising with the sun has moved through the calendar over the centuries. In ancient Egypt, around 3,000 BC, it happened at the same time as the summer solstice, adding even more significance to its co-rising. At the time the solstice marked the start of their new year and the beginning of the crucial Nile flood season. It is likely that the association of Sirius with dogs began here as the star’s hieroglyph was a dog, but the exact reasons are lost in time.

{end of extract}

Until next time, happy reading, writing, and wordfooling,
Grace (@Wordfoolery)

p.s. It’s day 28 of the 30 days NaNoWriMo 2022 writing challenge and I’m edging up on the finish line. Wish me luck!