There's a webcomic I read called "Deogie" and the most recent one, the dog (Deogie) is looking out the window and says "it's raining cats and dogs", which the cat took literally and had his eyes checked.
Anyway, it got me curious as to where that idiom even comes from. The answer is nobody really knows, but the more interesting bit is many languages have odd idioms for heavy rain:
en.wikipedia.org
Many languages have idioms like "raining like water being poured from a bucket", and quite a few have sayings that translate to "raining like ropes".
But a Dutch idiom stood out: "het regent pijpenstelen" (raining pipe stems (or stair rods)). And yeah, that's referencing tobacco pipe stems. Ropes I get, hammers/nails, sure... but pipe stems? That's the only real reason I started this thread.
Some other weird ones include Cantonese 落狗屎 (it's raining dog poo), Afrikaans "dit reën ou meide/vrouens/anties met knopkieries" (it's raining old tribal women/women/aunts with knobsticks), Finnish: "sataa kuin Esterin perseestä (raining like from Esteri's ass), Norwegian: "det regner trollkjerringer" and "det snør kattunger" (it's raining she-trolls and it's snowing kittens, respectively).
Anyway, this also reminds me the other day when I somehow came across a sport called Chess Boxing, which is exactly like it sounds: two people wail on each other boxing for a round, then a round of speed chess, then back to a round of boxing, another round of speed chess, etc—another weird combination/hybrid sport like Joggling.
So, what's some other weird stuff you've come across when you get sucked down an Internet/Wikipedia hole?
Anyway, it got me curious as to where that idiom even comes from. The answer is nobody really knows, but the more interesting bit is many languages have odd idioms for heavy rain:
Raining cats and dogs - Wikipedia
Many languages have idioms like "raining like water being poured from a bucket", and quite a few have sayings that translate to "raining like ropes".
But a Dutch idiom stood out: "het regent pijpenstelen" (raining pipe stems (or stair rods)). And yeah, that's referencing tobacco pipe stems. Ropes I get, hammers/nails, sure... but pipe stems? That's the only real reason I started this thread.
Some other weird ones include Cantonese 落狗屎 (it's raining dog poo), Afrikaans "dit reën ou meide/vrouens/anties met knopkieries" (it's raining old tribal women/women/aunts with knobsticks), Finnish: "sataa kuin Esterin perseestä (raining like from Esteri's ass), Norwegian: "det regner trollkjerringer" and "det snør kattunger" (it's raining she-trolls and it's snowing kittens, respectively).
Anyway, this also reminds me the other day when I somehow came across a sport called Chess Boxing, which is exactly like it sounds: two people wail on each other boxing for a round, then a round of speed chess, then back to a round of boxing, another round of speed chess, etc—another weird combination/hybrid sport like Joggling.
So, what's some other weird stuff you've come across when you get sucked down an Internet/Wikipedia hole?
