Also 6, 9 Sc. -gaw, 9 -go. f. WEATHER sb. + GALL sb.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. 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. trans. 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 sunset, 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.
