Why Do We Say “Right as Rain”?

It’s always a relief to hear that someone or something will be right as rain—a.k.a., back to normal and doing well. But when you think about it literally, it’s not immediately obvious what being right as rain would mean. So where did we get this curious expression from, and what’s so right about rain, anyway?

The origins of the phrase date all the way back to 1400, when the Medieval poem “Roman de la rose” (“Romance of the Rose”) used the phrase “right as an adamant,” referring to a diamond or lodestone. A similar 1546 proverb offered the much catchier “right as a line.”

The idea was that the “right” object would not only be something neat or straight but have a more metaphorical correctness and properness to it. The phrasing must have really stuck with readers because the formula thrived for centuries after that. Some interesting examples include right as a gun, right as my leg, right as ninepence, and right as a trivet, the latter notably used in 1837 by Charles Dickens in The Pickwick Papers. 

None of those options have the same ring to them as right as rain does, though. This particular iteration emerged in late-19th century Britain, with one of the first printings appearing in an 1886 issue of the London newspaper The Weekly Dispatch. A couple decades later, Max Beerbohm used it alongside a similar alliterative idiom in his book Yet Again:

“He looked, as himself would undoubtedly have said, ‘fit as a fiddle’; or ‘right as rain.’”

It’s thought by some that right as rain is likely a reflection of the typical English weather. As the forecast in the United Kingdom is so notoriously grey, nothing could be “righter,” or more as things should be, than a rainy day.

Right as rain quickly replaced its other variants and has been in the lexicon since then. The alliteration of the rs really adds to the cheery feeling of the phrase, helping to emphasize its positive meaning. In fact, the way it flows off the tongue is one of the theories for why it ultimately stuck. It is, at least, a lot more enjoyable to say than ”right as an adamant.”

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