THE AMATEUR WORD NERD: Looking at clouds, from both sides now

By Barbara McAllister

Word of the Day: Cloud
Today “cloud computing” refers to data that is stored in the air, an ethereal, invisible, intangible concept. The word cloud came from “clud,” an old English word for a rock or hill mass. The current use of cloud as another name for the internet is directly the opposite of human’s original notion of clouds, which appeared to our early ancestors as solid masses in the sky.
With their mysterious and ever-changing appearance, clouds have often been imbued with fabulous properties and meanings. The ancient Greeks thought clouds were a group of nymphs who spent their days collecting water from the rivers in cloudy pitchers, then rose up when the pitchers were full to pour water from the sky. The nymph’s brothers were river gods who floated through the sky in their billowing white robes. Ancient Hindus thought that clouds were celestial relatives of earthly elephants who showered rain upon the earth with their cloud-trunks. Some Native Americans considered clouds the clothing of the gods in heaven. The agricultural Pueblo of the Southwest worship clouds as spirits of the dead who take on cloud form after having lived a good life. Worshipping Cloud People helped bring rain to nourish their crops and land.
We know today clouds are formed when invisible water vapor in the air condenses into visible water droplets or ice crystals, but clouds still inspire feelings of awe and enchantment. It’s such a universal phenomenon that a Cloud Appreciation Society was formed in the UK in 2005 to celebrate the idea that clouds are nature’s poetry. As of March 2020, it had more than 50,000 members from 120 countries. You can view pictures, buy products in the Cloud Shop and subscribe to Cloud a Day through their website, Face Book page, Twitter and Instagram. Ancient cloud gazing is now brought to us via the modern internet cloud.