OED: "monkey's wedding"
Alice Faber
faber at HASKINS.YALE.EDU
Sun Dec 2 15:02:56 UTC 2012
On 12/2/12 8:34 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> My grandmother told me about "sunshowers" ca1952.
>
> I thought it was weird that it could rain while the sun was shining. IMO,
> sunshowers are very brief.
>
> I've read (but never heard) "The devil is beating his wife." I've never
> seen an explanation of it.
>
"Sunshowers" is the term I was familiar with, growing up in the NY area
in the 50s/60s. When I moved to Texas for grad school, I was told about
"the devil is beating his wife" as a quintessential Texas expression,
although I don't think I ever heard it "in the wild".
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