Skinning a cat in a bag

Imagine language without idioms, proverbs, or other flourishes to represent the nuances of the human condition. In 1984, George Orwell imagines such a language in “Newspeak.” Recently at work, a colleague used a proverb to point out that we could approach a certain task in a few different ways, saying, “There is more than one way to skin a cat.” A second colleague noted that an absent co-worker who loves cats would have been upset to hear that proverb used. A discussion of the possible origins of the proverb ensued, with great sympathy for Poor Tom Cat.

A few days later, a panelist on a radio talk show commented on a secret revealed, again using a cat-related proverb, “Someone let the cat out of the bag.” This usage caught my attention because of the recent conversation at work regarding skinning cats. At least the poor skinned cat was set free.

 Ways to skin a cat

Where did these catty proverbs originate? I employed only one way to skin these kitties—a Google search. Three different sources all agree that vague references to killing cats appear in English proverbs going back to the 1600’s; however, the exact origin of the first proverb under study remains a mystery. A web site dealing with English Language and usage, English Stack Exchange, cites a letter dated 13 March 1839 in which John Smith writes about the challenge of creating a white flag to signal a truce: "There's more ways to kill a cat than one." The Phrase Finder cites a version from 1855 in Charles Kingsley’s novel Westward Ho!, “There are more ways of killing a cat than choking it with cream.”

All three sources cited agree that the earliest appearance of the proverb referring to skinning a cat as opposed to killing it appears in 1840 in a short story, “The Money Diggers,” by Seba Smith, an American humorist.

Rolls off the Tongue puzzles over the proverbial desire to kill both cats and dogs, noting a shift from “killing the cat” to “skinning the cat” in American usage and Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, published in 1889. This proverb, however, does not refer to feline cats but to catfish, rendering the proverb less gruesome and potentially more palatable.

LETTING THE CAT OUT OF THE BAG

Now that the cat is skinned, let’s let the cat out of the bag. A generally accepted first appearance of the phrase in print comes from The London Times in 1760: “We could have wished that the author . . . had not let the cat out of the bag.”

Both The Phrase Finder and Mental Floss offer similar information regarding two theories of origin for this phrase. One theory, traced back to 1530, refers to a trick supposedly played at markets in which the wily seller substituted a cat for a pig in a bag, or a poke. According to the Phrase Finder, “If you let the cat out of the bag,” you disclosed the trick – and avoided buying a pig in a poke (bag).

In the second theory, the “cat” is a cat-of-nine-tails, a whip used to punish sailors. Few sources give this explanation much credibility. For a full refutation of both theories, see Snopes.com.

While the cat has been away, this mouse has played—with words and ideas—perhaps set on by the cat’s curiosity, which I hope will not kill it this time. I had planned to write more about cats and proverbs in this blog, but for now I must put the cat back in the bag and promise you more feline-related fun in the next blog.

LAGNIAPPE: “Pig in a Poke” is the name of an episode of “Green Acres” in which Lisa sneaks Arnold Ziffel into a New York hotel room in order to prevent Mr. Haney from seizing Arnold to satisfy a debt.