Imber
/ˈɪm.bər/noun
A rare or poetic English noun meaning rain or a rain shower.
Did you know?Imber entered English from Latin, whose poetic vocabulary treated rain as a dramatic force of nature rather than merely a weather report.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*h₂embʰ-ro-
“Rain or precipitation; the reconstructed ancestor of several ancient rain-words.”
Ancient Sanskrit
Sanskrit
abhrá-
“Cloud or watery mass.”
Ancient Greek
Greek
ὄμβρος (ómbros)
“Rainfall or rainstorm.”
Classical Latin
Latin
imber
“Rain, rainstorm, or shower.”
Middle English
English
imber
“A rare learned borrowing meaning rain or a shower.”
Modern English
English
imber
“An obsolete or poetic term for rain.”
Explore more surprising origins