Thursday Trivia: Cat and Mouse

Okay, this might seem a bit obvious. Cats have chased mice from time immemorial, right? So it would follow that the phrase ‘cat and mouse’ was as old as, well, our humans (and everycat knows humans are, like, elebenty zillion years old and stuff).

Three cats, one mouse. Unfair odds?

But we found it interesting that its first known use only dates back to 1675, as an English-language idiom.

That form of the phrase can only be traced back that far in published literature, according to Merriam-Webster and Omnilexica.

What we found even more interesting is its definition. There’s its traditional meaning, of course:

• ‘the act of toying with or tormenting something before destroying it’ (Merriam-Webster)
• ‘to engage in a gamelike relationship in which evasion and pursuit are used: They played cat and mouse for a while before she consented to go out with him.’ (Dictionary Reference)

But then we found out that Cat and Mouse is a children’s game dating back to 1910-1915. And it may sound familiar!

The game begins with the group of children standing in a circle with hands on each others’ shoulders. Two are selected out – one as the cat, one as the mouse.

The mouse tells the cat, “you can’t catch me!” and the game is afoot. The mouse runs in and out of the circle and the cat must mimic it exactly or he loses.

If the cat manages to catch the mouse, he becomes the mouse and gets to choose a new cat.

A variant of this in Costa Rica has the circle as active participants, helping the mouse out by trying to block the cat by raising and lowering their joined arms.

Sounds a bit like an elaborate game of tag, doesn’t it? 

"Tag...?"

__________
Sources:

Nebraska History
Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online
DictionaryReference.com
Omnilexica
Encyclopedia of Play in Today’s Society, Volume 1, Rodney P. Carlisle, page 119, Sage Publications, Inc, April 2, 2009