Cloud nine meaning idiom free#

The number nine cloud was the cumulonimbus cloud, which is the highest reaching cloud that can rise up to 10km into the sky. Here, the types of cloud were assigned a numerical order.

Cloud nine meaning idiom free#

What is the origin of the phrase cloud nine?Īccording to The Idioms free dictionary, the term cloud nine comes from the 1896 edition of the International Cloud Atlas. nine if they win a marathon, are a hero who saves the day, if they get into a school like Princeton University or if they complete a very difficult arithmetic sequence. Someone might feel like they are on cloud no. This state of elation and psychological state of pride feels like the very peak of existence, high above glorious white mountains in the sky. The earliest example with the ‘obscure’ meaning dates back to 1651, but look at this example from 1956: ‘Oh, she’s off on Cloud Seven – doesn’t even know we exist.’ This one clearly uses the Flavells’ dream-like meaning (as in another related phrase, ‘he’s got his head in the clouds’, meaning daydreaming).īut then look at this example from a 1960 dictionary of American slang: ‘ Cloud seven, on, completely happy, perfectly satisfied in a euphoric state.’ This brings us back to the meaning we set out to research.According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language and Collins English Dictionary, the term cloud nine refers to a state of perfect happiness.

The OED merges its entry for ‘on cloud seven or nine’ with that for ‘in the clouds’, meaning ‘obscure, mystical fanciful, unreal … (generally combining the notions of obscurity and elevation)’. This caught my eye because it ties in with some of the early examples given in the Oxford English Dictionary (if you have a UK library card, you may be able to log in to the OED online should you want to see more). The Flavells also acknowledge the US Weather Bureau theory and that the height of cumulonimbus is ‘an apt metaphor for being on top of the world, with hints of being in a dream-like, floating state’. There was also an American radio programme in the 1950s called Johnny Dollar, in which a character was frequently knocked unconscious and went to cloud nine, where he recovered (the Flavells credit this with fixing the number nine in the phrase, as does Albert Jack in Red Herrings and White Elephants). They suggest that it was popularised by jazz singers looking for a way of expressing a feeling of being ‘high’ (whether emotionally, as in the ‘happy’ meaning, or one caused by drink or drugs). They say that versions of the phrase first appeared in the 1930s (‘on cloud eight’) and referred to drunkenness.

Linda and Roger Flavell in their Dictionary of Idioms and their Origins say there’s ‘a good deal of uncertainty’ about the origin. She says it was the US Weather Bureau’s classification in the 20th century, and that each category of clouds was further subdivided into nine types of clouds – of which the ninth was the highest. Judy Parkinson in Spilling the Beans on the Cat’s Pyjamas gives more detail. And apparently an older version of the saying was ‘on cloud seven’. Very happy, as in: ‘I passed my exam – yippee! I’m on cloud nine!’ Where did it come from?Īpparently the phrase comes from an old system of classifying clouds.įrom the Horse’s Mouth, Oxford’s dictionary of idioms, says it was a 10-part classification so nine was very high.