I AM ON CLOUD NINE MEANING IN ENGLISH SERIES

(Unless the Buddhist idea holds water) See: The Phrase Finder seems uncertain of its origin but tends to corroborate my idea of late-twentieth-century. My sense is that it is late-twentieth-century but I am unaware of its etymology. 342 Þe seuenþe heuene, seiþ þe storie, Is paradys aftur purgatorie.Ĭloud nine is not even in the OED as a composite. The OED has a reference from as early as the fourteenth century.Ĭ1390 (▸a1325) Ipotis (Vernon) 82 in C.

I AM ON CLOUD NINE MEANING IN ENGLISH SERIES

the highest and most holy or blessed of the hierarchical series of heavens described in Jewish and Islamic theologyĪccording to the Talmudic Hagigah 12b, the place where God dwells over the angels, the souls of the righteous, and the souls of those yet to be born. ' Seventh heaven' is the most exalted level of heaven, esp. See other phrases that were coined in the USA.The principal difference is that they belong to quite different era and etymology. Linguistic hype being what it is, we now hear people expressing their happiness with the inflationary 'cloud ten', which brings us back to the cumulonimbus/Buddhist theories. That has probably been influenced by the use of 'cloud nine' in popular music - George Harrison adopted the term as the title of his 1987 album and, more notably, The Temptations' 'psychedelic soul' album of the same name, in 1969. Since the 1980s or so, 'cloud nine' has become predominant.

This early preference for seven as the significant number may have been influenced by the existing phrase 'seventh heaven'. 'Cloud seven - completely happy, perfectly satisfied in a euphoric state.'

The early favourite was 'cloud seven' and many of the oldest citations use that form, as in this piece from The Dictionary of American Slang, 1960, which was the first printed definition of the term 'That stuff is way up on Cloud Thirty-nine.' 'I think he has thought of everything, unless the authorities pull something new on him out of cloud nine.'Īround the same period we find clouds seven and thirty-nine, in The San Mateo Times, April 1952 and Ross’s Hustlers, 1956, respectively: 'Cloud nine' comes a little later, for example, in The Oxnard Press-Courier, August 1946: 'Cloud eight, befuddled on account of drinking too much liquor.' The early references all come from mid 20th century USA and the earliest that I've found is in Albin Pollock's directory of slang, The Underworld Speaks, 1935: CAN YOU ANSWER THESE COMMON GRAMMAR DEBATES There are grammar debates that never. The imagery was originally of a 'cloud cuckoo land' or 'head in the clouds' dreaminess, induced by either intoxication or inspiration, rather than the 'idyllic happiness' that we now associate with the phrase. a state of perfect happiness (usually in the phrase on cloud nine). It seems that it is the clouds themselves, rather than the number of them, that were in the thoughts of those who coined this phrase. Early examples of 'cloud' expressions include clouds seven, eight, nine and even thirty-nine. Also, the fact that nine is far from the only number that has been linked with clouds, argues against those origins. To single out the last but one stage of either is rather like attributing the source of the 'whole nine yards' to American Football, where it is ten yards rather than nine that is a significant measure. To begin with, both the cloud classifications and the Buddhist stages to enlightenment have ten levels. Neither of these explanations holds water. 'On cloud nine' is no exception.Ī commonly heard explanation is that the expression originated as one of the classifications of cloud which were defined by the US Weather Bureau in the 1950s, in which 'Cloud Nine' denotes the fluffy cumulonimbus type that are considered so attractive.Īnother explanation is that the phrase derives from Buddhism and that Cloud Nine is one of the stages of the progress to enlightenment of a Bodhisattva (one destined to become a Buddha). Whenever a phrase includes a number, like the whole nine yards, at sixes and sevens etc., then attempts to find its derivation usually focus on the significance of the number. What's the origin of the phrase 'On cloud nine'? To be 'on cloud nine' is to be in a state of blissful happiness. ‘Pulling Yourself Up by Your Bootstraps’ Origin What's the meaning of the phrase 'On cloud nine'?

I am on cloud nine meaning in english