Cloud
/klaʊd/noun
A visible mass of condensed water vapor floating in the atmosphere.
Did you know?English cloud originally came from a Germanic word for a rock or mass, and only later shifted to the sky because clouds were imagined as great piled-up masses overhead.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*gleubh-
“to peel, cut, split”
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*klūdaz
“mass, lump, rock”
Old English
English
clud
“rock, hill, mass of earth”
Middle English
English
cloud
“a visible mass in the sky; also a swelling or heap”
Modern English
English
cloud
“a visible mass of condensed water vapor in the atmosphere”