[Ads-l] "More than one way to skin a cat" (and related), antedated to 1823

[Laurence Horn]

Then there’s the version that offers a default method of ailuricide: 

“There are more ways to kill a cat than by drowning it in butter.”

I’m not sure catfish makes as much sense here, since you’d want to coat your catfish in cornmeal and drown it in hot vegetable oil rather than butter.

LH

> On Jul 10, 2019, at 5:46 PM, Bonnie Taylor-Blake <b.taylorblake at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> I know the idiom "more than one way to skin a cat" (and "more ways than one
> to skin a cat") has come up here before (especially in a discussion of
> whether "cat" could signify "catfish").
> 
> Way back in 2007, Stephen (Goranson) pushed the expression back to 4
> November 1830. (See link far below for Stephen's example.)
> 
> FWIW, here's a sighting from 1823.
> 
> ----------------
> 
> Now look here; (there are more ways than one to skin a cat, you know;)
> whenever the mail arrives at the office, I am pretty sure to be on the spot.
> 
> (From The Old Colony Memorial and Plymouth [Massachusetts] Colony
> Advertiser, 27 September 1823, page 1, column 4.)
> 
> ----------------
> 
> The idiom appears in American newspapers with some frequency beginning in
> late 1830, but it seems to have rarely appeared in print (well, in the
> publications I have access to) before 1830.
> 
> But there's the related and apparently older "to kill a cat" version (see
> 2, below) and "to kill a dog" (see, for example, Barry Popik's column,
> https://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/theres_more_than_one_way_to_skin_a_cat.).
> That these forms co-existed with (and perhaps preceded) the "to skin a cat"
> version suggests that "cat" is more feline than fish.
> 
> -- Bonnie
> 
> ---------------
> 
> 1) Stephen's 2007 find:
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2007-October.txt
> 
> 2) A few examples of the "kill a cat" form in American newspapers:
> 
> "Tricks upon Travellers," or, "More ways than one to kill a cat." -- OLD
> SAWS.
> 
> (Beginning of a column reprinted from "Eve. Post.," in The Newburyport
> [Massachusetts] Herald, 28 January 1812, p. 3.)
> 
> ---------------
> 
> No other nomination was made to the Senate to fill the vacancy, but after
> Congress adjourned, we are informed, the President appointed Major
> Vandeventer to the office; the mysterious Rip Rap contract notwithstanding.
> There are more ways than one to kill a cat, saith the proverb.
> 
> (From "The appointing poser," The New-York [New York]Evening Post, 14 March
> 1823, p. 2.)
> 
> ------------------
> 
> Nor will we refuse your requests neither, we will only give you the go-by,
> & we'll show you that evasion is as effectual as denying. As the boys say
> *there's more ways than one to kill a cat*.
> 
> (From "'Vested rights' of the Corporation," The New-York [New York] Evening
> Post, 14 May 1829, p. 2.)
> 
> ------------------
> 
> "There are more ways than one" to make a party as well as to "kill a cat."
> 
> (From "Working Men's Party," in The Practical Politician, and Working-men's
> Advocate [Boston], 18 September 1830, p. 1. Apparently originating in The
> Boston Courier.)
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org