section_path: Etymology
section_name: Etymology
paragraph_text: Etymology
  
  The origin of the term "cloud" can be found in the Old English words clud or clod, meaning a hill or a mass of stone. Around the beginning of the 13th century, the word came to be used as a metaphor for rain clouds, because of the similarity in appearance between a mass of rock and cumulus heap cloud. Over time, the metaphoric usage of the word supplanted the Old English weolcan, which had been the literal term for clouds in general.