plum rains
/ˈplʌm ˈɹeɪnz/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.37 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
1
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Also occasionally in the singular form plum rain: the East Asian rainy season from early summer to midsummer in the fourth and fifth lunar months (early June to early or mid-July); also, the rain which falls during this season.
Example Sentences
- "This week the rainy season appears fairly to have set in, and to have found the farmers but ill-prepared for the deluge. The wheat and barley crops were just ripe for the sickle, and in several instances had been cut, but not carried, when the "plum rains," as the Japanese call them, began."
- "The heroes of those thousand years? / Alas! like running water, gone; / Yet still the fever-blast one hears, / And still the plum-rain patters on."
- "Besides, the general rainfall caused by the occasional visitation of cyclones and typhoons a long spell of wet weather prevails from the second decade of June to the first decade of July. This rainy season is commonly known as "Bai-u" or "Plum-rain", as it occurs when the plums are getting ripe. This "Plum-rain" season begins earlier in the lower latitude and progresses to the higher latitude."
- "In May–June, it may rain for days on end for about a month and is known as the period of "plum rains.""
- "In the Yangtze River Valley, the rainy period from mid-June to mid-July is the noted Meiyu or Plum Rains. This rainy season is characterized by the abundant precipitation, high relative humidity, cloudy or overcast, short daily duration of sunshine, weak surface wind, and the frequent occurrence of heavy rainfalls."
- "We have bad weather in Shanghai leading up to summer, called the plum rains. If the product isn't in a good environment it will get wet, and mould and frost will damage it."
Etymology
From plum + rains, either: * a calque of Japanese 梅雨 (ばいう, baiu, “East Asian rainy season”) (梅 (ばい, bai, “Japanese plum or apricot (Prunus mume)”) + 雨 (う, u, “rain; rainy weather”)), from Middle Chinese 梅雨 (mwoj hju^X), a poetic reference to the season when plums grow or ripen; * a calque of Japanese 梅の雨 (うめのあめ, ume no ame, literally “plums’ rain”), from 梅 (うめ, ume) + の (no, possession marker) + 雨 (あめ, ame); or * a calque of Mandarin 梅雨 (méiyǔ, “East Asian rainy season”) (see, for example, the 1894 and 1991 quotations), from 梅 (méi, “Prunus mume”) + 雨 (yǔ, “rain”).
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈplʌm ˈɹeɪnz/
- British English: /ˈplʌm ˈɹeɪnz/