weather

Etymology

From Middle English weder, wedir, from Old English weder, from Proto-West Germanic *wedr, from Proto-Germanic *wedrą, from Proto-Indo-European *wedʰrom (=*we-dʰrom), from *h₂weh₁- (“to blow”). Cognates Cognate with Saterland Frisian Weeder, West Frisian waar, Dutch weer, Low German Weder, German Wetter, Danish vejr, Swedish väder, Norwegian Bokmål vær, Norwegian Nynorsk vêr, Icelandic veður; also more distantly related to Russian вёдро (vjódro, “fair weather”) and perhaps Albanian vrëndë (“light rain”). Other cognates include Sanskrit निर्वाण (nirvāṇa, “blown or put out, extinguished”).

noun

1. The short term state of the atmosphere at a specific time and place, including the temperature, relative humidity, cloud cover, precipitation, wind, etc.
   What's the weather like today?
   We'll go for a walk when the weather's better.
   The garden party was called off due to bad weather.
   Here and there, the weather on the sea allowed two of their friends to hear and see, too.
   Human beings love to talk about the weather. 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 118
2. Unpleasant or destructive atmospheric conditions, and their effects.
   Wooden garden furniture must be well oiled as it is continuously exposed to weather.
3. (nautical) The direction from which the wind is blowing; used attributively to indicate the windward side.
4. (countable, figurative) A situation.
5. (obsolete) A storm; a tempest.
   What gusts of weather from that gathering cloud / My thoughts presage!
6. (obsolete) A light shower of rain.

adj

1. (sailing, geology) Facing towards the flow of a fluid, usually air.
   weather side, weather helm

verb

1. To expose to the weather, or show the effects of such exposure, or to withstand such effects.
   The organisms […] seem indestructible, while the hard matrix in which they are embedded has weathered from around them. 1856, Hugh Miller, The Cruise of the Betsey
2. (by extension) To sustain the trying effect of; to bear up against and overcome; to endure; to resist.
   April 18, 1850, Frederick William Robertson, An Address Delivered to the Members of the Working Man's Institute You will weather the difficulties yet.
3. To break down, of rocks and other materials, under the effects of exposure to rain, sunlight, temperature, and air.
4. To cause (rocks) to break down by crushing, grinding, and/or dissolving with acids.
   Lichens' ability to weather makes them a geological force, yet they do more than disolve the physical features of the world. 2020, Merlin Sheldrake, Entangled Life, page 85
5. (nautical) To pass to windward in a vessel, especially to beat 'round.
   to weather a cape    to weather another ship
6. (nautical) To endure or survive an event or action without undue damage.
   Joshua weathered a collision with a freighter near South Africa.
7. (falconry) To place (a hawk) unhooded in the open air.
   If your hawk is bad-weathered, that is, will not fit on your fist when the wind blows, but hales, and beats, and hangs by the jeſſes, ſhe has an ill habit of the worſt kind. 1773, James Campbell, A Treatise on modern faulconry