I Found
Your Tongue. The Cat Had It!
You know the phrase: When somebody has nothing to say, especially
when that person usually has more than enough to say, their quietude is often blamed on the cat: Cat got your tongue?
There are several possible
origins for this saying. Let's start with the ones that actually involve a cat. Cats have often been seen as familiars
for witches. If a mortal saw an actual witch, then the witch's cat would supposedly steal that person's tongue to prevent
her or him from telling others. (3 Cat Got Your Tongue) I suppose it never occurred to the witch that the person
could just write a note. It is also said that in Ancient Egypt, "liars' and blasphemers' tongues were cut out and
fed to cats." (John) Are cats really that crazy about tongue?
Another suggestion for the origin of this phrase is that on English
sailing ships anybody who was entrusted with a secret was threatened with a lashing from a cat o' nine tails should he divulge
that information, so when he was quiet out of fear of a brutal beating, it was said that the "cat had his tongue."
(Phrase of the Day)
Also
based on a cat 'o nine tails, whenever anybody had a beating they were supposedly overly quiet afterwards, prompting other
sailors to joke with the seriously injured sailor that that he was quiet because "the cat had his tongue."
(2 Cat Got Your Tongue) Quite a sense of humour.
However... there are no recorded cases where blasphemers' tongues were ever fed to the family
cat, or where anybody in the British navy ever said, "Cat got your tongue?" for any reason. And there are
no recorded cases where a witch's familiar got a special treat, either fanciful or otherwise. (Martin)
One of the first recorded uses of this phrase is an article
in The Racine Democrat in 1859. More than likely it had been in use before then, since it is used as if the
reader knows what is meant by the phrase. (Martin) The reference appears again in another American magazine in
1881, there as a taunt used by children, bless them. (1 Cat Got Your Tongue)
In the end, it seems like "Cat got your tongue"
is just a phrase that somebody made up instead of using another cliché... imagine that! It's a bit like saying
"Wolverine got your eyes?" when somebody can't see something that should be obvious. If the phrase catches
on, then in another 100 years people will be wondering why wolverines ate people's eyes.
