The video shows a good example of the way in which English often did not replace words with Latin derivatives but added to its vocabulary.
[1] Old English: reġn
Modern English: rain
Modern German: Regen; Modern Dutch: regen; Modern Swedish:
regn
Most nouns and adjectives referring to the weather / natural
conditions are Germanic in origin:
hot / heat / warm / cold
rain / wind / frost / snow
sun / moon / star / sky
An interesting exception is the English noun air, which
is (via French) from La: āēr. This is known as displacement: the native Old
English noun lyft (Modern German: Luft) fell into disuse in favour of
the Latin term.
[2] Latin-derived words, usually borrowed into English
through French after the Norman Conquest, often form adjectives, technical and
scientific vocabulary, more formal ("higher-register") words, and
modern Neo-Latin coinages:
moon / lunar
star / stellar
sun / solar
wind / ventilate
warm / tepid
cold / frigid
[3] Sometimes, two words co-exist:
celestial < La: caelum (sky); compare: OE hēofan (heaven)
> heofonlīċ > ME: heavenly
[4] Latin:
pluvius, -a, -um: rainy
pluviālis,
-e: pertaining to rain
pluvia, -ae [1/f]: rain
This ends up in English derivatives and coinages:
[i] pluvial: pertaining to rain
We would never say a “pluvial day” – we always say a rainy
day – but a geographer would refer to “pluvial climates” (characterised by
persistent rainfall)
[ii] pluviometer: an instrument for measuring rainfall.
Interesting: we use a Germanic word rainfall to
describe what’s happening, but a Latin (and Greek) word to measure it: pluvio-
+ -meter [< Anc. Gk. μέτρον (métron)]