[Ads-l] cat got tongue

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

The 1852 citation is superior to the 1881 citation mentioned by some websites.

Grammarist
https://grammarist.com/idiom/cat-got-your-tongue/
[Begin excerpt]
The earliest use of the phrase cat got you tongue? is found in an
American magazine in 1881, where it is described as a taunt used by
children.
[End excerpt]

Grammarist also mentions some unlikely origin stories and states "All
of these stories are apocryphal".

The Oxford English Dictionary includes the expression in three
quotations. The earliest is from 1911.
[Begin excerpt]
tongue, n. II. In reference to speech. 4.
b. In many colloquial and proverbial expressions of obvious meaning.
1911   H. H. Harper Bob Hardwick 88   I was so angry at her that
I..made no answer... Presently she said, ‘Has the cat got your
tongue?’
[End excerpt]

The Phrase Finder
https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/cat-got-your-tongue.html
Thia website points to an 1881 citation

Merriam-Webster
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cat%20got%20your%20tongue
cat got your tongue idiom
No date listed

Garson

On Wed, Oct 24, 2018 at 7:07 AM Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu> wrote:
>
> Antedating? Both US; both spoken to children.
>
>
> "...she can't speak. The cat has got her tongue....you have a pretty name and the cat hasn't got your tongue either."
>
> Clovernook: or, Recollections of our neighborhood in the west. By Alice Carey. 1852 p. 294.
>
> <http://people.duke.edu/~goranson/>https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112002554175;view=1up;seq=300
>
>
> "Oh ho! The cat has got your tongue has it?" was his next remark. The speech was so childishly absurd, like the teasing [[of?]] Ralph Clifford of years ago that I laughed in spite of myself. Wisconsin Daily Patriot, Dec. 13, 1859, p.2 AmHistNewsp
>
>
> Stephen Goranson
>
> http://people.duke.edu/~goranson/
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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