[Ads-l] Scaredy Cat - 1904; Fraidy Cat - 1889

[Chris Waigl]

Would it be correct to interpret these uses of fraidy-cat and scaredy-cat
as a reflection of how widespread and culturally accepted child's play
based on tormenting small domestic animals was?

Wondering,

Chris

On Fri, Mar 26, 2021 at 12:00 PM Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:

> Has anyone checked out the Google snippet purporting to be from Friday
> Afternoon Speaker by Thomas Stewart Denison, dated 1881?
>
> "So you see it ain't no fun When the fellers laugh and say "Fraidy-cat, you
> dassant play".
> DanG
>
>
> On Thu, Mar 25, 2021 at 4:35 PM Peter Reitan <pjreitan at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> > A recent episode of Jeopardy featured an "answer" about a New Yorker
> > contributor who coined the expression, "Scaredy Cat."  The correct
> > "question" was "who is Dorothy Parker," who is widely regarded as having
> > first used it in 1933.
> >
> > But "Scaredy Cat" appeared as early as 1904, and frequently afterward,
> > and "Fraidy Cat" dates to at least 1889.  There are many earlier
> > references to people jumping, running, or looking like a "scared cat"
> > "scared tom-cat" or "scared pole-cat".
> >
> > Pine Bluff Daily Graphic (Pine Bluff, Arkansas), October 11, 1904, page
> > 3.
> > [Excerpt] The little boys at school called her 'little Fraid Girl,' and
> > when they wanted to teaser hery much they called her 'Scaredy-cat.'
> > [End Excerpt]
> >
> > The same story appeared in Pennsylvania at about the same time, and the
> > expression pops up elsewhere in the next few years, so it's not clear
> > whether it originated as a localism there or not, although the earliest
> > example of "Fraidy Cat" also appeared in Arkansas, so you never know.
> >
> > Daily Arkansas Gazette, Little Rock, May 12, 1889, page 14.
> > [Excerpt] "Go 'long fraidy-cat; you're a regular baby to let that little
> > bird scare you," come from the foot of the tree.   [End Excerpt]
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


-- 
Chris Waigl . chris.waigl at gmail.com . chris at lascribe.net
http://eggcorns.lascribe.net . http://chryss.eu

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