Sunday, June 9, 2013

(UPDATE) SURVEY TIME: What's your favorite phrase or word to describe a rain storm?

Mine happens to be GULLY WASHER and that's how I referred to the rainstorm outside which is likely to keep us (or at least, me) from making it to this super cool speakeasy down the road.  But when I said "Gullywasher" to describe the buckets o' rain outside our window, Zach looked at me like I was from Neptune.  At which point, I OBVIOUSLY had to look up the word(s) "Gully Washer" to prove that I am not, in fact, crazy...I am simply Southern (and Texan Southern at that).  Here's the definition I found:

"This term is used throughout the Midland,[1] Southern[2] and Western United States.[1] Allan A. Metcalf's 2000 book How We Talk: American Regional English Today notes "there are gully washers throughout the South and South Midlands, and this is one Southern term that is well-known in the central Midwest as well, as far north as Nebraska, Iowa, and Wisconsin, and as far west as Colorado. But there aren't any gully washers in New England or the northernmost states, and the word is rare on the Pacific coast." Wiki - "Gully washer"

So then I got ta thinkin', I bet lots of people have lots of different ways to refer to heavy downpours....

What's yours?!?!

"Rain Storm" by Cotton Valent - http://cottonvalent.deviantart.com/art/Rain-Storm-122143459
Since the comment function on blogger leaves something to be desired, here are a few of the comments I got back on this post via FB: 

1 comment:

Lindsey said...

Here's some that I've run across: raining buckets, toad choker (similar to frog strangler...dontcha love Texas!), pissing rain, heavens opened, and sheets of rain. Suprisingly, there are not as many synonyms for "gullywasher" as one would think.