<BLOCKQUOTE class=replbq style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid"><BR> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16640" name=GENERATOR> <DIV id=ms__id63> <div class=bbb><FONT face=Verdana><STRONG>Let the cat out of the bag</STRONG></FONT></div> <div class=menings-header><FONT face=Verdana size=2><STRONG></STRONG></FONT> </div> <div class=menings-header><FONT face=Verdana size=2><STRONG>Meaning</STRONG></FONT></div> <div class=meanings-body><FONT face=Verdana size=2>Disclose a secret.</FONT></div> <div class=menings-header><FONT face=Verdana size=2><STRONG></STRONG></FONT> </div> <div class=menings-header><FONT face=Verdana size=2><STRONG>Origin</STRONG></FONT></div> <div class=meanings-body><FONT face=Verdana size=2>There are two commonly heard suggested origins of this phrase. One relates to the fraud of substituting a cat for a piglet at markets. If you <EM>let the cat out of the bag</EM> you disclosed the trick - and avoided
buying a </FONT><A href="http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/282900.html"><FONT face=Verdana size=2>pig in a poke</FONT></A><FONT face=Verdana size=2> (bag). This form of trickery is long alluded to in the language and 'pigs in a poke' are recorded as early as 1530.</FONT></div> <div class=meanings-body><FONT face=Verdana size=2></FONT> </div> <div class=meanings-body><FONT face=Verdana size=2><IMG height=132 alt="Cat o' nine tails" hspace=4 src="http://www.phrases.org.uk/images/cat-of-nine-tails.gif" width=151 align=right>The other theory is that the 'cat' referred to is the <EM>cat o' nine tails</EM>, which was used to flog ill-disciplined sailors. Again, this has sufficient historical record to be at least possible. The cat o' nine tails was widely used and was referred to in print many years prior to the first use of 'let the cat out of the bag'. The 'nine tails' part of the name derives from the three strands of cord that the rope lashes were made from. Each of
the cords were in turn made from three strands of string. When unbraided a piece of rope separated into nine strings. The 'cat' part no doubt alluded to the scratches that the knotted ends of the lash made on the victim's back, like those from a cat's claws. </FONT></div> <div class=meanings-body><FONT face=Verdana size=2></FONT> </div> <div class=meanings-body><FONT face=Verdana size=2>Of the two explanations, the 'pig in a poke' derivation is the more plausible, although I can find no direct documentary evidence to link 'letting the cat out of the bag' to the selling of livestock. The <EM>cat o' nine tails</EM> story is dubious at best. It is reported that the lashes were sometimes stored in bags, but the suggested nautical punishment origin fails at the critical point, in that it doesn't match the '<EM>disclose a secret</EM>' meaning of the phrase. </FONT></div> <div class=meanings-body> </div> <div class=meanings-body><FONT face=Verdana size=2>The first
known use of the phrase in print that I have found is in a 1760 edition of <EM>The London Magazine</EM>:</FONT></div> <BLOCKQUOTE> <div class=meanings-body><FONT face=Verdana size=2>"We could have wished that the author... had not let the cat out of the bag."</FONT></div></BLOCKQUOTE> <div class=meanings-body><FONT face=Verdana size=2>There are several other literary references to the phrase in the 1760s and 1770s, most of which place it in quotations marks - a sure sign of it being not commonly understood and consequently, newly coined. </FONT></div> <div class=meanings-body><FONT face=Verdana size=2>Cats feature very often in English proverbs:</FONT></div> <BLOCKQUOTE> <div class=meanings-body><FONT face=Verdana size=2>A cat may look at a king - 1546<BR>All cats are grey in the dark - 1596<BR>Curiosity killed the cat - 1921<BR>There are more ways of killing a cat than choking it with cream - 1855 <BR>When the cat is away, the mice will play -
1607</FONT></div></BLOCKQUOTE> <div class=meanings-body><FONT face=Verdana size=2>This routine appearance of cats in the language is no doubt a consequence of them being widely kept as mousers and pets in domestic houses. As to 'who let the cats out?', we can't be certain; but it probably wasn't a sailor. </FONT></div> <HR> <FONT face=Verdana size=2>The Phrase A Week newsletter goes out to 70,000 subscribers (52,000 by e-mail, 18,000 by RSS feed). </FONT></DIV> <div></div> <BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV><A href="http://www.phrases.org.uk/a-phrase-a-week/add.html"><FONT face=Verdana color=#006699 size=2>Add a phrase a week</FONT></A><FONT face=Verdana><FONT size=2> to your own web site or blog. (www.phrases.org.uk/a-phrase-a-week/add.html)</FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV><A href="http://www.phrasefinder.co.uk/"><FONT face=Verdana color=#006699 size=2>Phrase Thesaurus - Writer's Aid</A></FONT> <FONT face=Verdana size=2>(www.phrasefinder.co.uk)</FONT></DIV> <DIV><A
href="http://www.phrases.org.uk/"><FONT face=Verdana color=#006699 size=2>Phrases and sayings</FONT></A><FONT face=Verdana size=2> - meanings and origins. (www.phrases.org.uk/meanings)</FONT></DIV> <DIV><A href="http://www.phrases.org.uk/a-phrase-a-week/unsubscribe.html"><FONT face=Verdana color=#006699 size=2>Unsubscribe</FONT></A><FONT face=Verdana size=2> from this mailing list. (www.phrases.org.uk/a-phrase-a-week/unsubscribe.html)</FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV class=copyright align=right><FONT size=2>Copyright © </FONT><A href="http://www.phrases.org.uk/gary-martin.html"><FONT color=#006699>Gary Martin</FONT></A> </DIV></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><p>