Let The Cat Out Of The Bag Origin – What is the origin of “Let the cat out of the bag”? There’s nothing obvious about why releasing a cat from a bag has anything to do with revealing the truth.
To “let the cat out of the bag” comes from selling cats like pigs or whipping sailors for transgressions.
Let The Cat Out Of The Bag Origin
“Let the cat out of the bag” is one of those sayings where the meaning is instinctively grasped, even if it’s hard to coherently put into words why this happens. While this phrase is extended shorthand for truth coming out, there’s nothing obvious about why letting a cat out of a bag should have anything to do with revealing a secret. (Still, it’s a useful phrase to have in one’s linguistic arsenal, as there is no word in the English language that conveys the disclosure, whether deliberate or accidental, of information that should be withheld.
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The most accepted theory about the origin of the saying states that it is a trap practiced against those who buy cattle. According to their lights, unscrupulous pig sellers would hastily exchange a cat for a pig that had been bought and packed for easy transport when the buyer looked away for a moment, with the deceived buyer only discovering the substitution upon returning home. and leave the cat. out of the bag
Although numerous etymology books refer to this explanation as the origin of the phrase, common sense should serve to reject it. In order for the deceived cattle buyer theory to be correct, the seller’s fraud would only come to light when the cat was out of the bag. However, suck or not, it is almost impossible to confuse a cat with a pig. At the very least, anyone trying this trick would quickly conclude that something was seriously wrong with their pig long before they opened the bag to see what was inside.
Domestic cats and pigs are not comparable in size, so a bag containing one instead of the other will not mislead the buyer, as the full bag will be slightly smaller than it was before the trick. Even if a big cat were bagged instead of a small pig, due to the nature of the constitution of each of these types of animals, the weight would be wrong, as cats have a rather loose constitution compared to meat pigs. much denser, the cat will weigh much less than the pig, even if the two animals are the same size.
Cats also behave very differently from pigs. While a pig locked in a bag may squeal or squeal when brought home, a cat will spit, hiss, hiss and meow. We think you’d have to look high and low to find someone capable of mistaking the sounds made by one for the noises made by the other. Also, while a pig in a sack might kick and fight, a cat will add its signature claw work to that dynamic. And yours
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Finally, consider this: for “letting the cat out of the bag” originate in the practice of cats being surreptitiously foisted on the innocent like pigs by dishonest farmers, said fraud would have to be successfully performed on so many that its outcome it got into language (and that through people who didn’t realize they had it until they got home). In the Middle Ages there were not so many fools: if there were, the species would not have survived.
We suspect that the mistaken cattle-buyer explanation was drawn from the admonition against buying pork in a poke, a saying dating with certainty to 1555 (with its antecedent “When offered a pig, open the poke” dating from 1325). This homily warns against buying merchandise that has not been vetted (instead of later checking merchandise that has already been vetted and purchased to ensure that no one has surreptitiously exchanged it for less valuable merchandise).
A second theory attributes the saying’s origin to the British Royal Navy, stating the instrument of punishment used on straying from their duties or behavior (a whip called the “nine-tailed cat” or “nine-tailed cat”). ‘) was usually kept in a red bag, so that a sailor who exposed another’s transgressions was “letting the cat out of the bag”. However, no evidence documents that such whips were routinely stored in bags, or that the phrase “let the cat out of the bag” was initially associated with maritime origins or uses.
As for the origin of the saying, there is still no clear answer. Possibly “letting the cat out of the bag” was always intended to be nothing more than an amusing mental image of the explosiveness of revealing a confidence; usually what is deliberately concealed is of a lewd or titillating nature, so there are often large elements of shock. and surprise when the truth comes out, something akin to the shock caused by a frightened cat that suddenly breaks free of the bag that had trapped it. Or it could have to do with a similarity between the behavior of secrets and cats: once released, they go wherever they want. (In other words, private news made public spreads far and wide, despite all efforts to contain it to a small circle of confidants or even to silence it completely.) bag” was a phrase from a play now lost to us, in which the connection between moggies and bags and secrets was made clear to an audience captivated by it.
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Brasch, R. How did it start? New York: David McKay Company Inc., 1965. (pp. 146-147). Ever wondered where phrases like “let the cat out of the bag” come from? How about “feel under the weather?” Well, good news: I found a helpful infographic that explains five common English idioms. Everyone loves an infographic, right?
When it comes to learning a language, navigating languages can be one of the hardest skills to master. Sometimes direct translations don’t make much sense in your native language, what if you’re not used to hearing them in your own cultural context? Well, let’s just say it can be difficult to tune your ear. But the good news is that these days the Internet makes it a lot easier to figure out exactly what someone means when they say “let the cat out of the bag.”
But while I dug up details from the infographic about what all these phrases mean, it doesn’t explain where they come from. So I decided to pick up the slack and look up three of the hardest terms to explain. Here’s what I came up with; scroll down to see the full infographic.
There are two possible explanations for this, but unfortunately we don’t know which one is correct, or even if either one is correct. The first explanation describes it as relating to a punishment for sailors; supposedly, at one time, the British Royal Navy kept a nine-tailed cat on each ship in a leather pouch. When a sailor needed a spanking, he’d out the bag and out the whip. As Mental Floss puts it, taking a whip out of the bag initially doesn’t seem to have much to do with revealing a secret, but “if you think of ‘letting the cat out of the bag’ as a revelation that results in punishment?, it makes a little more sense.
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The second supposed origin relates the phrase to livestock fraud. The scam involved selling piglets in bags and exchanging the bags for bags full of cats after the customer made the purchase. Snopes, however, disregards both possible origins, so sadly, we may never know the truth.
Again, the origins of this one are a little murky; generally, however, it is considered a nautical phrase. According to a number of online repositories of idioms, ill sailors were sent below decks to protect them from the weather, literally “under the weather”. However, only one of these databases cites an outside source, and that source (Salty Dog Talk: The Nautical Origins of Everyday Expressions) was published as recently as 1983. So I’m not sure when the phrase’s first recorded use was. it happened
This phrase is believed to date back to the 19th century and the tradition of the cake walk, in which cakes were handed out as prizes. However, I also found that cakewalks have some pretty racist roots. Thanks to this new knowledge, I will no longer participate in any bowling alleys, just because.
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