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Rain rises

Language Log 2021-05-31

It rained for the last two or three days, so someone wrote me a note saying she was looking forward to "ameagari no aozora 雨上がりの青空" ("blue sky after the rain").  I knew what she meant, but when I started to analyze the semantics of the verb, I was drawn into a vortex of uncertainty about how the simple verb "agaru 上がる", whose primary meaning is "rise; go up", could mean "stop".  That, however, is to look at the kanji shàng 上 with the eyes of a specialist in Sinitic languages, where it has these meanings:

preposition:  on; above; upon; on top of

adjective:  upper; last; previous; superior; preceding; topmost; overhead; higher; better

adverb:  up

verb:  rise; go up; board; mount; climb; apply; send in; fill; present; leave for; serve; submit; supply; first  

prefix:  over-

You get the idea.  In Chinese, shàng 上 usually has to do with motion upward, position above, etc.  It is hard to derive the idea of "stop; end" from shàng 上 in Sinitic languages.  Just looking at ameagari 雨上がり, the Sinitic specialist is tempted to interpret it as meaning "the rain rises", which would be quite mistaken.

On the other hand, in Japanese words, jō / shō / ue / kami / uwa / a(-geru), a(garu), nobo(-ru), nobo(-seru), nobo(-su) 上 has many more meanings.  Here I list only those derived from one of its verb forms, agaru 上がる:

go up; come up; rise; climb; climb up; go up in price; jump; jump up; be completed; be finished; come to an end; stop raining; die; die out; issue; accrue; be derived; take; have; eat; drink; come in; enter a house; be admitted to a school; call on; visit

As for how to explain the apparent "rain rises" in the sense of "rain stops", Linda Chance put it nicely when she wrote to me:

Don't we say "once the rain has lifted" in English? Anyway, "agaru" means "to end." Compare "oagari," the cup of tea you have to indicate you have finished eating a round of sushi.

Frank Chance volunteers:

I suppose I am qualified to answer this since my spouse says, correctly, that I am obsessed with weather reports.   I might add that the current morning drama on NHK is about a young woman who is going to become a meteorologist, so we may get some evidential support from there.

Of course rain falls in Japan, but the verb used is not kudaru 下る but furu 降る ("fall; precipitate; descend; go down") –- and note that this character can also be read as kudaru ("go down") or oriru ("get down; exit a vehicle; go down stairs") . 

One of my favorite expressions is "amefuttejikatamaru 雨降って地固まる (“rain falls, earth firms”) used when a relationship improves after a fight; in other words  as the rain settles the dust a conflict can actually firm up a relationship. [VHM:  "adversity strengthens the foundations; after a storm comes a calm; what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" –​ Proverb; from Jisho]

 When rain rises (ame ga agaru 雨が上がる) it stops raining, i.e., it goes back up into the sky, though agaru 上がる is used for ending or completion in a number of phrases, most notably dekiagaru 出来上がる ("to complete a task").  Rain can also, like any other meteorological phenomenon, yamu 止む, when it stops.

Frank also reminds us that we should include the sushiya ("sushi restaurant") vocabulary item “agari” meaning tea –- particularly tea at the end of the meal.  When you ask the sushi chef for agari they will start calculating your bill.

So it seems that agari is idiomatically highly productive.  Nathan Hopson remarks:

A few of the other interesting uses of あがり / 上がり that come immediately to mind: お風呂上がり (from お風呂から上がる) → just out of the bath (from "get up out of the bath") 病み上がり → convalescent but still not fully recovered 上がり！ (from 上がる, meaning to win a game) → "I win!"

上がり症•上がり性, i.e. (often? usually? social) anxiety disorder / anxious personality

I began this post yesterday when the rain was falling, and I'm ending it this morning as the rain is rising.

Selected readings

[Thanks to Zihan Guo]