cloud
A visible mass of water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere.
Etymology
From Old English clūd, originally meaning "rock, hill" (a mass of earth), from Proto-Germanic *klūtaz "lump, mass." The modern meaning "sky cloud" developed in Middle English, replacing the Old English word wolcen. The word "cloud" does not descend from the PIE word for cloud, *nebʰ- (Latin nebula, Greek néphos) — it is a Germanic semantic shift from "rocky mass" to "sky mass."
The Journey: (no clear PIE root) → cloud
*h₃nebʰ-
*klūtaz
clūd
cloud
cloud
Cognates Across Languages
These words in other languages descend from the same PIE root (no clear PIE root). They are not borrowings but independent inheritances from a common ancestor.
| Language | Word |
|---|---|
| Greek | néphos |
| Latin | nūbēs |
| Hittite | nēpiš (sky) |
| Sanskrit | nábhas- |
| Old Irish | nem (sky) |
| Old Church Slavonic | nebo (sky) |
Did You Know?
English "cloud" originally meant "rock" or "hill mass" — people saw sky clouds as resembling rocky masses. The older English word for cloud, wolcen, survives in the poetic/archaic "welkin" meaning sky. The PIE word for cloud, *nebʰ-, gives English "nebula" instead.