In writing, the first use of one of its predecessors occurs in Albin Pollock’s “ The Underworld Speaks,” published in 1935. It’s an evolution of different sayings involving “cloud” and other numbers. The expression “ cloud 9” originates from mid-20th century America. “I hate to be the one to bring you down from cloud 9, but it’s time to go to work. “This bed is so comfortable I could just fall asleep right now. The team put in the best performance of the season, and we’re all on cloud nine after raising the trophy.” Man, that was seven years of hard work coming together in a few short hours. I feel like I’m on cloud nine right now.” “I can’t believe Mike asked me out on a date. For instance, you could land a dream job offer, or you could be feeling over the moon about your relationship with your partner.

The expression “ cloud 9” means that you are in a perpetual state of bliss and happiness-the expression suits when you’re feeling a natural reaction or a euphoric reaction induced by chemicals.īeing on “ cloud nine” means you’re feeling good about circumstances in your life. That has probably been influenced by the use of 'cloud nine' in popular music - George Harrison adopted the term as the title of his 1987 album and, more notably, The Temptations' 'psychedelic soul' album of the same name, in 1969.Are you looking for a way to express your feelings of bliss and delight? If so, you could tell everyone that you’re floating on “ cloud 9.” This post unpacks the meaning and soring of this expression. Since the 1980s or so, 'cloud nine' has become predominant. This early preference for seven as the significant number may have been influenced by the existing phrase 'seventh heaven'. The early favourite was 'cloud seven' and many of the oldest citations use that form, as in this piece from The Dictionary of American Slang, 1960, which was the first printed definition of the term 'Cloud seven - completely happy, perfectly satisfied in a euphoric state.' 'That stuff is way up on Cloud Thirty-nine.' 'Cloud nine' comes a little later, for example, in The Oxnard Press-Courier, August 1946: 'I think he has thought of everything, unless the authorities pull something new on him out of cloud nine.'Īround the same period we find clouds seven and thirty-nine, in The San Mateo Times, April 1952 and Ross’s Hustlers, 1956, respectively: 'Mantovani's skilled use of reeds and strings puts this disc way up on Cloud Seven.' The early references all come from mid 20th century USA and the earliest that I've found is in Albin Pollock's directory of slang, The Underworld Speaks, 1935: 'Cloud eight, befuddled on account of drinking too much liquor.' The imagery was originally of a 'cloud cuckoo land' or 'head in the clouds' dreaminess, induced by either intoxication or inspiration, rather than the 'idyllic happiness' that we now associate with the phrase. It seems that it is the clouds themselves, rather than the number of them, that were in the thoughts of those who coined this phrase. Early examples of 'cloud' expressions include clouds seven, eight, nine and even thirty-nine.

Also, the fact that nine is far from the only number that has been linked with clouds, argues against those origins. To single out the last but one stage of either is rather like attributing the source of the 'whole nine yards' to American Football, where it is ten yards rather than nine that is a significant measure.

To begin with, both the cloud classifications and the Buddhist stages to enlightenment have ten levels. Neither of these explanations holds water. Another explanation is that the phrase derives from Buddhism and that Cloud Nine is one of the stages of the progress to enlightenment of a Bodhisattva (one destined to become a Buddha). A commonly heard explanation is that the expression originated as one of the classifications of cloud which were defined by the US Weather Bureau in the 1950s, in which 'Cloud Nine' denotes the fluffy cumulonimbus type that are considered so attractive. Whenever a phrase includes a number, like the whole nine yards, at sixes and sevens etc., then attempts to find its derivation usually focus on the number.

I was on cloud nine meaning in english