Weather

Weather - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

WEATHER, n. Wether. [G., The primary sense of this word is air, wind or atmosphere; probably the Gr., whence ether.] Properly, the air; hence,

1. The state of the air or atmosphere with respect to heat or cold, wetness or dryness, calm or storm, clearness or cloudiness, and the like; as warm weather; cold weather; wet weather; dry weather; calm weather; tempestuous weather; fair weather; cloudy weather; hazy weather, and the like.

2. Change of the state of the air.

3. Storm; tempest.

[These last significations are not now in use, unless by a poetic license.]

Stress of weather, violent winds; force of tempests.

WEATHER, v.t. wether.

1. To air; to expose to the air. [Rarely used.]

2. In seamens language, to sail to the windward of something else; as, to weather a cape; to weather another ship. As this is often difficult, hence,

3. To pass with difficulty.

To weather a point, to gain or accomplish it against opposition.

To weather out, to endure; to hold out to the end; as, to weather out a storm.

Weather is used with several words, either as an adjective, or as forming part of a compound word.

weth'-er (zahabh (Job 37:22), yom (Pr 25:20), translated "day"; eudia, "clear sky," cheimon, "tempest"): In the East it is not customary to talk of the weather as in the West. There seems to be no word in the Hebrew corresponding to "weather." In Job 37:22 the King James Version translates "Fair weather comes out of the north," but the Revised Version (British and American) translates more literally, "Out of the north cometh golden splendor." "As one that taketh off a garment in cold weather (or literally, "on a cold day"), .... so is he that singeth songs to a heavy heart" (Pr 25:20).

Jesus rebukes the Pharisees for their lack of spiritual foresight when they took such interest in natural foresight. He said, "When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the heaven is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather to-day: for the heaven is red and lowering" (Mt 16:2,3). The general conditions of the weather in the different seasons are less variable in Palestine than in colder countries, but the precise weather for a given day is very hard to predict on account of the proximity of the mountains, the desert and the sea.

Alfred H. Joy