plum rains

Meanings

1. Also occasionally in the singular form plum rain: the East Asian rainy season from early summer to midsummer in the fourth and fifth lunar months (early June to early or mid-July); also, the rain which falls during this season.

Etymology

From plum + rains, either: * a calque of Japanese 梅雨 (ばいう, baiu, “East Asian rainy season”) (梅 (ばい, bai, “Japanese plum or apricot (Prunus mume)”) + 雨 (う, u, “rain; rainy weather”)), from Middle Chinese 梅雨 (mwoj hju^X), a poetic reference to the season when plums grow or ripen; * a calque of Japanese 梅の雨 (うめのあめ, ume no ame, literally “plums’ rain”), from 梅 (うめ, ume) + の (no, possession marker) + 雨 (あめ, ame); or * a calque of Mandarin 梅雨 (méiyǔ, “East Asian rainy season”) (see, for example, the 1894 and 1991 quotations), from 梅 (méi, “Prunus mume”) + 雨 (yǔ, “rain”).