I wanted to leave earlier because one fellow had brought jazz records, and jazz drives me up the wall, but it started raining--a real cloudburst. The skylight started leaking, and we had to put pots and pans around to catch the drips. -- Lilian Jackson Braun, The Cat Who Lived High, 1990
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Origin of cloudburst
Cloudburst is an Americanism whose construction is similar to, and may be a translation of, the German noun with the same meaning, Wolkenbruch. It entered English in the early 1800s.
I must applaud your eximious valour, however, for life can be very difficult--and dangerous … -- Claire Lorrimer, The Silver Link, 1993
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Origin of eximious
Eximious comes from the Latin adjective eximius "select, distinguished, excellent," which is a derivative of the verb eximere, "to take out, remove." It entered English in the mid-1500s.
