ー英会話講師の英語日記ー　札幌英会話スクールSTEP UP（札幌駅、大通駅徒歩５分）

Under the weather?

2018年5月6日 (日)

There are many expressions for letting someone know that you are sick.  The most common of these expressions is “I’m not feeling well.”  However, there are others that you may have never heard of.  Two of these expressions are “I’m under the weather” and “I’m sick as a dog.”  But where do these expression come from?

“Under the weather” comes from the days when a lot of men sailed the seas.  The captain of the ship wrote down everything that happened during the day, including the weather conditions.  When people got sick, he would write their names down too.  If there were many sick sailors on a voyage, there wouldn’t be enough space to record all their names, and therefore the additional names would be written in the space for the weather conditions, or “under the weather.”

If you’re interested to know where “sick as a dog” comes from, please ask me! I’d be happy to tell you about that too!