tdol said:
'Raining cats and dogs' is a strange idiom- every student in the world knows it, yet I never hear any native speaker use it here in the UK.;-)
It is said that cats and dogs are born to be enemy to each other. i knoe 2 examples that includes "cats and dogs".
1.fight like cats and dogs.
2.rain like cats and dogs.
Because the sound or voice of their fighting is usually roaring and screaming, that why they use this proverb as a metaphor of raining heavily.
Some said, in the past, the sewer system was designed poorly, once it rains, the bodies of cats and dogs will float on the street. And people misunderstood these bodies were falling from the sky.
In Scandinavian mythology, it is said the witch who takes charge of STROM usually appeared in a transformation of a BLACK CAT. While the sailors see the black cat, it means it is going to rain heavily. There is a similar saying 'the cat has a gale of wind in her tail.'
BUT i am just curious about who put the words in an order like "cats and dogs" instead of "dogs and cats."
Another proverb, "sell a pig in the poke." In my language, we say something like "to hang up a sheep's head and sell dogmeat"
sabrina :wink: