fun with phrases

[Jonathan Lighter]

I dunno, but my mother was warning about a cat possibly doing me in by
falling asleep on my face, when I was well into my '30s.

I should mention that I did own a cat at the time.

However, the idea that an itty bitty kitty cat could suck all the air out of
a room just by sleeping in it would have struck her as insane.

Or, more probably, "unlikely."

JL
On Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 7:16 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: fun with phrases
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Does "suck the air out of" together with cats go
> back to the lamia?  (Lamia itself is a1382.)  A
> lamia being a woman who sucks the blood of
> children, witches appearing as cats, cats sucking air out of infants?
>
> Joel
>
> At 9/28/2011 03:50 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >The point is that the phrase itself first appears in GB in 1948 in a more
> or
> >less literal sense, which is then linked with cats in 1962.  The cat
> >business is meant literally: as a superstition, it may lie behind the 1948
> >ex., which appears to have superstitious or ghostly overtones.
> >
> >In 1985 the phrase is used fig. to describe a person who impresses
> everyone.
> >Leaves them breathless, perhaps?
> >
> >It achieved cliche' status only after 1996. This morning I heard it used
> of
> >Gov. Christie - as
> >a compliment.
> >
> >JL
> >
> >
> >
> >On Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 3:11 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > > -----------------------
> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> > > Subject:      Re: fun with phrases
> > >
> > >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > On Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 2:55 PM, Baker, John <JBAKER at stradley.com>
> wrote:
> > > > cats [匽 suck the breath from babies, killing them
> > >
> > > FWIW, that's the version that I'm familiar with, though I didn't
> > > encounter it till some time after 1962, when it was given to me as the
> > > speaker's reason for disliking cats.
> > >
> > > --
> > > -Wilson
> > > -----
> > > All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
> > > to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> > > -Mark Twain
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> >--
> >"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------
> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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