Ask Sue-belinda
I WAS contemplating which of a number of topics I’d choose for today’s column.
Choosing a topic myself is a rare occurrence, as usually there are many ‘pings’ on the computer announcing the arrival of questions to be answered, but it’s been quiet, so I was flirting with this topic or that topic when a ‘ping’ announced an email.
Don wanted to know the origin of the expression, ‘cat got your tongue’?
I was enjoying a cuppa and thinking about how and where I’d start when there were two more ‘pings’ in quick succession – Terri wanted to know about giving someone the ‘cold shoulder’ and Zac was curious about ‘buttering someone up’.
Suddenly with three terrific expressions to explore, I shelved my ‘possible topics’.
Don had used the expression at work and a younger staff member had chastised him for saying ‘something so awful’. They assumed that the expression was linked to feeding tongues to cats. Well Don, you’re on safe and solid ground as it has nothing to do with feeding tongues to anyone or anything.
There are two voices that scream quite loudly from newspapers and other nonacademic print sources claiming that ‘cat got your tongue’ originates from one of two possible sources. Source one claims that that the expression, which is really a shortened form of ‘has the cat got your tongue?’, derives from the use of the cat of nine tails. The cat of nine tails was a flail – a type of short whip – which rather than having one tail had nine. Each of the nine lengths was knotted along its length to inflict greater punishment and pain as the victim was thrashed. The flails were made of either cord (thin tightly woven rope) or leather. It was called the ‘cat’ as it left a series of very bad scratches on its victim and the nine tails related to the nine cords. It was said that the victims would be in such great pain that they were rendered incapable of speaking for days, hence the back formation of the idea ‘has the cat got your tongue?’ There is absolutely no record to support this claim and the ‘cat of nine tails’ had been in use in the Royal Navy, and less frequently in the army, for hundreds of years before the expression is found in print.
The Royal Navy used to keep their ‘cats’ soaking in a vat of sea water as the salt sting would cause greater pain as the skin was opened, but it would lessen the likelihood of infection.
Another group claim that the expression derives from ancient Egypt where the tongues of liars and blasphemers were cut out and fed to cats. Like the ‘Cat of nine tails’, there is again no proof that this happened. Even in the face of enormous evidence about the day to day life of ancient Egyptians, there is nothing about feeding liar’s tongues to cats.
In truth, the expression is American and is relatively new, first appearing in print in the mid1800s in the Wisconsin paper, the Racine Democrat (December, 1859): “How I love a rainy day!’’, he said.
“To this I made no answer. I loved a rainy day too, but I was not disposed to say so just then.
“Oh ho! The cat got your tongue has it?” was his next remark.
The remark was made as an allusion to the fact that cats are quiet and not prone to letting you know what they are thinking – unless very, very angry!
As for ‘cold shoulder’ Terri, well it’s Scottish in origin and dates to the early 1800s. Now some of you may be familiar with an email that does the rounds in which it is claimed either that a welcome guest is offered a hot meal and an unwanted guest a cut of cold shoulder of beef, lamb or pork or that the head of the house would offer a guest a cold cut of shoulder of meat to let them know it was time to leave. Were this so, my husband would have exploded due to overindulging on cold cuts when we were courting!
In fact the expression has nothing to do with food at all.
This expression is a simple description of aloofness and complete disdain. It was first used by the great poet Sir Walter Scott in his The Antiquary, written in 1816: “The Countess’s dislike didna gang farther at first than just showing o’ the cauld shouther.”
Now just in case your 19th century Scottish dialect isn’t up to snuff, I’ll translate: ‘The Countess’s dislike didn’t go any further at first than just showing the cold shoulder.’
In simple terms, if you show someone the ‘cold’ shoulder’, you’re not so rude as to turn your back on them, but you do turn away from them such that your shoulder is facing them – cold and without the warmth of human expression.
Finally to Zac and ‘buttering someone up’. Again this is full of claimants to origin – some suggest it’s Indian as Hindus make balls of clarified butter or ‘ghee’ to fling at statues of their deity eenakshi.
This is a convenient coincidence, but there is no evidence that it’s the source of the origin. Most likely, it is the allusion to the buttering of bread to improve its flavour and taste. The expression first appears in print towards the late 1800s: “Flatter; seek a favour by excessive praise. It is a transfer from the homely practice of spreading an oleaginous substance on bread.” Earlier examples of the figurative meaning can be cited, but the most pleasant comes from the Saturday Review of July 5, 1884: “The Lord Chief Justice of
England made a tour through America and generously buttered the natives. From The Dictionary of Clichés, by James Rogers (Ballantine Books, New York, 1985).” So Zac – seek a favour by adding to the flavour – use kind words to make someone feel better about themselves and more likely to assist you in achieving your goals. Keep that curiosity up everyone and keep sending those questions in.