raindrift

Etymology

From rain + drift.

raindrift means A sheet of rain blown by the wind. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 89 out of 100.

Why “raindrift” is a great word

RAINDRIFT — [Noun] A sheet of rain blown laterally by the wind. From the English words 'rain' (water falling in drops from the clouds) and 'drift' (something driven or carried along by a current). Unlike 'rainfall,' which quantifies descent, or 'downpour,' which declares vertical force, a raindrift is rain’s surrender to horizontal flight—a temporary reordering of element and axis. It is the gauzy curtain sweeping across an empty moor, the spectral veil that obscures the lighthouse beam, the cold, stinging lash that finds the gap beneath a lifted collar. In that brief obscurity, the atmosphere reveals itself not as void, but as the fluid medium through which we, too, are drifting.

noun

A sheet of rain blown by the wind.“The fierce wind drove a raindrift in at the open door, as two men, drenched from head to foot, but vested as Benedictine monks, entered.”