cataracts
English
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈkætəɹækts/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈkætəˌɹæk(t)s/
- Hyphenation: cat‧a‧racts
Etymology 1
| PIE word |
|---|
| *ḱóm |
From Late Middle English cataractes, cataractis, cateractes, used to translate καταρράκται (katarrháktai, “(probably) floodgates, sluices”) in the Septuagint and cataractae (“floodgates, sluices”) in the Vulgate versions of the Bible.[1][2] The Middle English words are plural forms of cataract, cataracta, cateract, cateracte (“floodgate of heaven”),[3] from Old French cataracte (modern French cataracte), and from its etymon Latin cataracta (“floodgate; waterfall”), from Ancient Greek καταρ(ρ)άκτης (katar(rh)áktēs, “(noun) waterfall; (adjective) rushing downwards”), from καταρ(ρ)ᾱ́σσω (katar(rh)ā́ssō, “to pour down; to rush downwards”) + -της (-tēs, suffix forming nouns denoting a state of being). Καταρ(ρ)ᾱ́σσω (Katar(rh)ā́ssō) is derived either:[4]
- from κᾰτᾰ- (kătă-, prefix meaning ‘downwards’) + ἀρᾰ́σσω (arắssō, “to dash to pieces; to strike”) (further etymology unknown, possibly onomatopoeic) or ῥᾱ́σσω (rhā́ssō, “to dash; to strike”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wreh₂ǵʰ- (“to pound, strike”)); or
- from καταρρηγνύναι (katarrhēgnúnai, “to break down”).
By surface analysis, cataract + -s (suffix forming pluralia tantum).
Noun
cataracts pl (plural only)
- (biblical, obsolete) The floodgates of heaven, regarded as holding back the rain.
- 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC, signature [Rr3], verso, lines 818–822:
- No ſooner hee [Noah] vvith them of Man and Beaſt / Select for life ſhall in the Ark be lodg'd, / And ſhelterd round, but all the Cataracts / Of Heav'n ſet open on the Earth ſhall povvre / Raine day and night, […]
Etymology 2
From cataract + -s (suffix forming regular plural forms of nouns, and third-person singular simple present indicative forms of verbs).
Noun
cataracts
- plural of cataract
Verb
cataracts
- third-person singular simple present indicative of cataract
References
- ^ See The Holie Bible, […] (Douay–Rheims Bible), Doway: Lavrence Kellam, […], 1609, →OCLC, Genesis 7:11–12, page 26: “In the ſix hundred yeare of the life of Noe, in the ſecond moneth, in the ſeauententh day of the moneth, al the fountaines of the greate deapth vvere broken vp, and the floud gates of heauen vvere opened: and the raine fel vpon the earth fourtie dayes and fourtie nights.”
- ^ The Holie Bible, […] (Douay–Rheims Bible), Doway: Lavrence Kellam, […], 1609, →OCLC, Genesis 8:1–2, page 36:
- And God remembred Noe, and al the beaſts, and al the cattle, vvhich vvere vvith him the arke, and brought a vvinde vpon the earth, and the vvaters decreaſed. And the fountaines of the depth, and the floud gates of heauen, vvere ſhut vp: and the rayne from heauen vvas ſtayed.
- ^ “cataracte, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
- ^ “cataracts, n.”, in OED Online , Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2025; “cataracts, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.