The words for the basic juggling patterns; cascade, shower, and fountain, can also describe a way that water flows. Is this the same in other languages as well? What is the origin of this nomenclature?
I have never heard anyone trying to use a Swedish word for the juggling pattern "shower", but we use "kaskad" (but I don't think that word is usually associated with water in Swedish) and sometimes "fontän" though I'd say it's also common to just use the English words.
About the origin, I have no idea really, but I like what I read in Charlie Dancey's book, something about the watery names coming from the fact that the first thing every juggler learns is the drop.
Daniel Simu - - Vorredner #
In Dutch we say cascade, without really knowing what it means, but pronounced Dutch. Fountain is usually called like the English fountain and hardly ever like the similar Dutch fontijn. Showers are always called showers.
In German it is pretty much the same..
If I had to guess, Dave Finnigan's books might have had a big influence on spreading these names internationally? Next time I run into a translation of one of his books I'll check what the patterns are called...
Stephen Meschke - - Vorredner #
I like the Charlie Dancey explanation.
I was confused by these juggling terms because the juggling patterns look nothing like the words that describe them.
James Hennigan - - Vorredner #
Some fountains have the same shape as the juggling pattern, and the balls follow the same path that the water does:
https://previews.123rf.com/images/nesacera/nesacera1102/nesacera110200007/8802169-Classic-Fountain-Stock-Vector-fountain-water.jpg
https://www.rezasld.com/Portals/0/Gallery/Album/12/Fountain-Spray-Rings.jpg
In Miami I've heard Spanish speakers refer to the cascade as the infinity sign. They were speaking English at the time.
When I first heard the words, i thought, "fountain" referred to the cascade-trick, bursting up and spreading like a fountain, and thought "cascade" referred to the shower-trick looking much like a waterfall cascading down a chine.
I don't know where/when they originated, but I did a quick Google Books search for "juggling" and "cascade" and found an article "You Can Learn to Juggle" by K. H. Ward in the May 1929 issue of Popular Mechanics Magazine:
https://books.google.ca/books?id=wN4DAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA850&dq=%22cascade%22+%22juggling&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22cascade%22%20%22juggling&f=false
It has teaching diagrams for both the shower and cascade, along with balancing, cigar and hat juggling, etc.
I'm sure the juggling historians in our midst could tell us how far the terms go back in English.