Idioms and Their Origins
By way of moving away from political ridicule I thought I'd share my puzzlement for the evening. Where does the phrase, "you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a fill in the blank" come from? It was on an episode of MASH this evening and I was suddenly struck with it. Why would anyone swing a dead cat? or a live one? and what would a person be liable to hit with a dead cat? So many questions.
I can only think of one literary reference to dead cat swinging, and that's from Tom Sawyer when they bring a dead cat to the graveyard to swing around as some sort of wart removal superstition. Does this phrase come from this particular superstition? Or did Mark Twain pull it from previously existing idioms? Anybody else come up with any references or possible origins?
I can only think of one literary reference to dead cat swinging, and that's from Tom Sawyer when they bring a dead cat to the graveyard to swing around as some sort of wart removal superstition. Does this phrase come from this particular superstition? Or did Mark Twain pull it from previously existing idioms? Anybody else come up with any references or possible origins?
posted by Victoria at 6:51 PM
5 Comments:
I've got no clue. I think that your guess is good though.
You know what idiom Jesse totally hates. . . that was a near miss. Isn't a near miss the same thing as a hit???
I think what we need in this situation is Joni's dictionary of phrase and fable. We'll have to annoy her to look it up for us when she gets back to school.
I totally love that website Ellie. It's fabulous.
Do you know any more unaccounted for idioms?
Ok, so I don't have a clue either, but I just wanted to tell you guys how much I missed you! LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! abs
guys! guess what! I passed my calc exam today!!! yippee!
PS: victoria- i miss seeing you on im and reading your wonderful away messages. :o(
I LOVE you beautiful ladies!!! :o)
I'm having the same luck as Ellie, but for what it's worth:
"To have no room to swing a cat: To be in a restricted or cramped area. There are various suggested origins of the phrase. Swinging cats by their tails as a mark for sportsmen was once a popular amusement. Cat was an abbreviation for cat-o'-nine-tails and in view of the restricted space in the old sailing ships where the cat was often administered, the expression is more likely to refer to this kind of cat. However, cat is also an old Scottish word for rogue, and if the derivation is from this, the 'swing' is that of the condemned rogue hanging from the gallows. See also Fight like Kilkenny cats."
And because I love you:
"To fight like Kilkenny cats: To fight till both sides have lost or are destroyed. The story is that during the Irish rebellion of 1798 Kilkenny was garrisoned by a troop of Hessian soldiers, who amused themselves by tying two cats together by their tails and throwing them across a clothesline to fight. When an officer approached to stop the 'sport', a trooper cut the two tails with a sword and the two cats fled. When asked to explain the two bloody tails, the trooper explained that two cats had been fighting an devoured each other all but the tails."
[Quotes from Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable]
Oh, and a near miss isn't a hit. It's an almost hit--like when you almost hit a deer and have to slam on your brakes and swerve and everything, and you manage not to hit it by mere inches. That's a near miss. Not to speak from experience or anything... :)
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