Chrysti The Wordsmith: Let The Cat Out of the Bag

Greetings I'm Christie the wordsmith. Imagine a student struggling to learn American English she encounters for the first time the expression let the cat out of the bag meaning to reveal a secret. If that student were to ask you to explain the logic behind the idiom What would you tell her. You might go to a phrase dictionary or online to search for the origin of the expression. But surprisingly there is little solid information on this bewildering phrase the standard explanation involves a dishonest old English livestock vendor who instead of handing his customer a bag containing a valuable piglet puts a worthless stray cat in the bag instead to let the cat out of the bag would then expose the farmers unscrupulous secret. But one word watcher Michael Quinion proprietor of world wide words dot org questions this explanation because incarcerated cats are rarely silent Quinion writes Anybody who has ever kept a live cat in a bag for more than a couple seconds will know that even the most gullible purchaser would hardly mistake it for a piglet.

It may just possibly be that the phrase comes from the explosive exit of a cat from a bag when it's opened. So suggesting an original connection more with the shock and surprise of the event than of the disclosure of the secret itself. I'm Christi the wordsmith this series comes to you from the campus of Montana State University in Bozeman and the studios of KGO L.T. FM alternative radio for southwest Montana. CHRISTIE The wordsmith is sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Zoot enterprises a high tech firm in Bozeman Montana offering challenging careers and innovative solutions for the financial services industry. Zoot web dot com.