Shoures

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Archaic plural for sudden falls of rain or hail ; violent attacks or onslaughts of blows, arrows or other missiles
2. Old showers of rain or hail falling in bursts ; hostile assaults or barrages of blows and missiles driven against a target
3. Bursts of falling rain or hail in earlier English ; fierce assaults or volleys of blows, arrows and other missiles

Etymology: "Shoures" is the old plural of "shower," spelled as English writers once spelled it before the spelling settled. The singular comes from Old English "scūr," which meant a storm or tempest. Rain was just one kind of storm, so a brief downpour was a small "scūr." The word has relatives across the Germanic languages, including Old Norse "skúr" and German "Schauer." German "Schauer" also means a shiver or shudder, a hint that the root idea is something that arrives suddenly and strikes. English gradually narrowed the older sense of violent weather to the brief rain we mean today.