For those of us living in the Northern hemisphere during this time of year, it is easy to believe that the sky has several different variations of one colour and that colour is – grey.
Having looked at the word duvet as a reason for staying in bed, today’s word, especially given the current season, is a very valid reason for not wanting to leave the house, much less the bed.
Naturally, we are talking about the word overcast, and, though we all generally know what it means, perhaps it is worth digging a little deeper into a word that can change our outlook on the day as soon as we look out the window.
Originating in the 14th century as the past participle of the very overcast, which is simply a combination of the word over, meaning ‘above,’ with the verb cast, meaning ‘to throw.’ So, when saying that the sky is overcast, this, in literal terms, is saying that clouds have been thrown above us and/or completely covered us, which is quite different from ground-based factors such as fog.
In modern terminology, we might be just as likely to say that it looks dull or gloomy; however, interestingly, this is not to be confused with the weather simply being cloudy. As meteorologically speaking, overcast only technically occurs when clouds obscure the sky by at least 95%.
The first known usage of the word comes from the head merchant of an English factory in Japan, Richard Cocks, who wrote in 1616 that: “Overcast weather, with a stiff gale wind..towards night proved a tuffon.”
Moreover, when understood alongside quotes from Washington Irving’s A tour of the Prairies (1835): “It was a raw overcast night,” and Arthur Patterson’s Man and nature on the Broads (1895): “A sudden squall..strikes us; and heavy rain drops down from an overcast sky,” we can see that, aside from just discussing cloud coverage, overcast is also likely an indicator of unpleasantly cold weather.
So, if you must get out of bed on an overcast day, especially at this time of year, you might want to bring along your snowshoes or an umbrella, just in case.
