mizzle

mizzle pronunciation

/MIZ-ul/

Meaning

When the sky is not pouring, just leaking a fine wet mist, folks say it's mizzling. Too light to call a real rain, too wet to ignore. Works as a noun too for that misty drizzle itself. Farm and mountain talk has used it for ages when the weather is just plain aggravating without committing to a storm.

How folks use it

• “It ain't raining much, just a mizzlin' of falling weather.”
• “Don't bother with the big coat. It's only mizzling.”

Origin and etymology

Older English word for fine rain, in print since the late 1400s, likely kin to Low German and Dutch words for drizzle. The Dictionary of American Regional English marks it chiefly Southern and South Midland. Scotch-Irish mountain speech helped keep it alive in Appalachia and the rural South.

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