weather-gall
Also 6, 9 Sc. -gaw, 9 -go.
[f. weather n. + gall n.2 Cf. G. wettergalle, Du. weergal; also watergall 2 and windgall.]
An imperfect rainbow, believed to be a presage of storm: = watergall 2. Sometimes applied to other appearances in the sky to which the same significance is attributed.
| 1613–35 Markham Eng. Husb. i. i. iii. 12 If you shall see one or more Weather-galls which are like Raine-bowes, onely they arise from the Horison but a small way upward. 1621 R. Brathwait Time's Curtain drawn L 7, He..taukes of Starres, and clipses of the Sun,..Of wether-gaws and many sike as these. 1694 tr. Marten's Voy. Spitzbergen in Acc. Sev. Late Voy. ii. 50 These Lights are called Weather-galls by the Sea-men. 1808 Jamieson, Weddir-gaw. 1822 Scott Pirate iv, See how much heavier the clouds fall every moment, and see these weather-gaws that streak the lead-coloured mass with partial gleams of faded red and purple. 1823 W. Scoresby Jrnl. Whale Fish. 23 A little before sun⁓set, a weather-gall (or the limb of a rain-bow), of extraordinary brilliancy, appeared. 1824 Carr Craven Gloss., Weather-gall, a secondary rain-bow. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. s.v., A weather-gall at morn, Fine weather all gone. Ibid., Weather-go, the end of a rainbow, as seen in the morning in showery weather. 1878 J. Veitch Hist. Scot. Border xiv. 515 They eyed carefully the weather-gaw, or broken bit of rainbow above the horizon. |