Thursday Trivia: Two Shakes of a Lamb's Tail

So, what do this ...                                           and this:

 have in common?

Read on, and you'll see!

But first, let's talk about the origin of today's phrase. As we all know, if you're going to get something done in two shakes of a lamb's tail, you must be blazingly fast.

This idiom's been around a while. It began in the U.K., possibly as long ago as the late 18th or early 19th century. Its first use in print can be traced back to a memoir written in three stages, between 1840 and 1847, by a British clergyman named Reverend Richard H. Barham.

This memoir, entitled The Ingoldsby Legends, was a popular collection of humorous (and sometimes a bit gruesome!) folk tales.

Photo of lambs on hillside: Flickr Creative Commons 3.0 by Mance

Another thing: this first in-print example wasn't even the complete use of the phrase.
Our two shakes occur in the story called "The Babes in the Wood":

'I'll be back in a couple of shakes;
So don't, dears, be quivering and quaking,
I'm going to get you some cakes,
And a nice butter'd roll that's a-baking!'

Totally unrelated - but fun - Trivia:
Barham's collection of tales was so popular, in fact, that it inspired Walt Disney, who adapted one of the stories into the classic animated Fantasia.

The story was of a Lay-Brother named Peter and a certain incident with beer, which became the basis for the Sorcerer's Apprentice tale (Disney swapped the beer for bathwater).

Going forward a few decades, we finally track down the full use of the phrase, in a letter to the editor of a New Zealand newspaper in 1881, where the author observes:

"A Brooklyn man spent seven hours writing an essay to prove that a woman is inferior to a man, and then spent two hours more and a heap of profanity in an ineffectual attempt to thread a needle, a job which a woman finally did for him in about two shakes of a lamb’s tail."

But what in the world does all this have in common with radioactive material?

Simply this:
When nuclear physicists back in the 1950's were grasping for a simpler way to express the length of time it took for a single nuclear reaction to take place, they chose the phrase "two shakes of a lamb's tail" (shortened to "Shake") over "10 nanoseconds."

CMOS Wafer by Rico S. via Creative Commons

You still find it in use today, both in literature and in electrical engineering. Signal processing in an integrated circuit also occurs in the nanoseconds range, so the Shake is used here, too.

And for anyone who has a copy of Tom Clancy's The Sum of All Fears, go grab it and turn to Chapter 35. It's entitled "Three Shakes" for a reason!



And that's how a Shake became an official unit of time. No foolin'.

_____________________
Sources:
"The Lay of St. Dunstan" (or "The Lay Brother's Tale")
Text of The Ingoldsby Legends, by Rev. Richard H. Barham. Out of print/Public Domain.
Idiomation: "Historically Speaking - Two Shakes of a Lamb's Tail" by Elyse Bruce
Photo of lamb: Flickr Creative Commons 3.0 by Noel Reynolds
The origin of the Shake
Tom Clancy's "Three Shakes"

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Thursday Trivia: Origin of the Tomcat

Everyone knows what "tomcat" means. The word seems to have been around forever!
Not quite, actually. It only dates back about 245 years, give or take.

"Tomcat" first appears in a book written by British dramaticist and novelist Henry Fielding, in his title, The Life and Adventures of a Cat (1760).

Fielding was known for his somewhat earthy humor and the book itself, though a children’s title, was considered by some at the time to be a bit edgy for young eyes.

Faraday: Do I look like a "Tom" to you? Didn't think so. I'm a "Faraday".

The book’s protagonist was a male cat by the name of Tom, who Fielding repeatedly referred to throughout the story as “Tom the Cat.” The book was highly popular at the time, possibly for the same reason parents don’t mind taking their kids to see a Disney movie: much of the dialogue has a secondary meaning that adults appreciate.

At any rate, Fielding’s use of the phrase “Tom the Cat,” together with its popularity, resulted in a cultural shift: male cats came to be known as tomcats.

Prior to this, they were referred to as ram-cats. And the origin of this phrase was so ubiquitous that it would be impossible to date its origin.

Its oldest use in print can only be traced back to a book written by British satirist John Wolcot, writing as Peter Pindar in 1788. Note this actually postdates Fielding's "tomcat"!

The book was Peter's pension: a solemn epistle to a sublime personage and here’s a screenshot of its use in the book:

Allie: And of course, I'd like to remind everyone that boycats are merely called Tom, while us girlcats are properly called Queen.

Anyone want to challenge her opinion on that? Maxie? Faraday? Nope, didn't think so.

_________________
Sources:

Notes and Queries, William White. Oxford Journals. Complete text here.

Henry Fielding: wikipedia

Online Etymology Dictionary: "Tomcat"

The New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature: Volume 2, 1660-1800, George Watson (Editor). Cambridge Universtiy Press.

Peter's pension: a solemn epistle to a sublime personage, Pindar, Peter. London, 1788. Complete text here.

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Thursday Trivia: Enough to Make a Cat Laugh

This saying is not used very often today, so its meaning and origin are a bit more obscure. Basically, it plays off the inherent sophistication of the feline species.

Anything humorous enough to make a cat laugh, after all, must be funny indeed!

The Laugh of Scorn. Yeah, that's usually the laugh we get over here.

Its origin is equally obscure, and though it probably predates the mid 1800's, that was the earliest published use we could find.

"James Planché 1835"
by Henry Perronet Briggs.
Public Domain.

We found it in a One Act Burletta written by British playwright James Robinson Planché.

Merriam-Webster defines a Burletta as a "usually entirely musical comic opera popular in England in the latter half of the 18th century."
(We'd never heard of it either!)

The Burletta in question was a translation of the classic French tale, Puss in Boots, adapted for the stage in December of 1837.


In the text, he writes,

 “Allow us just applause to win
  Enough to make a cat laugh.” 

____________

Sources:

A COMPLETE LIST OF THE DRAMATIC PRODUCTIONS OF J. R. PLANCHÉ, p.324: Puss in Boots. Burletta, One Act (with C. Dance). Olympic Theatre, 26th December, 1837.

A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, Eric Partridge. Routledge, 1937.

The Comic Encyclopedia: A Library of the Literature and History of Humor Containing Thousands of Gags, Sayings, and Stories, Evan Esar. Doubleday, Jan 1, 1978.

***

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March book sales help find homes
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customized just for you..

CLICK PAYPAL IN SIDEBAR TO BUY
Thank you!

Check out our Catster Article!
 Important news about a common - yet dangerous - household item:

Faraday's Thursday Trivia

Faraday: Since Mommy's been kinda busy lately, I told her I'd take over today's Trivia.

Grand Canyon photo: John Kees via Creative Commons 3.0

 On this day in history, the Grand Canyon was officially made a National Park.

(See mommy? No crazy stunt in sight. And you were worried I'd do something "rash". Pffft.)

Woot! Class dismissed!
Anyone up for some climbing???

***

Thursday Trivia: A cat may look at a king

Okay, so be honest.
When you saw the title, how many of you said, “Well, duh...”?

An early in-print use of the phrase.
Image: Wikimedia Commons

As you well know, cats will look - and go - just about anywhere they please. Which, of course, explains why cats were used to express this proverb's particular meaning.

The Oxford Dictionary defines it this way, “Even a person of low status has rights.”

The McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms expounds a bit more on its meaning:
"No one is so important that an ordinary person cannot look at him or her; everyone has the right to be curious about important people.”

Personally, we prefer the original.  What a succinct and elegant way to sum up this concept!

Like many such phrases, its exact origin is unknown. But we did trace its first known use in print to a compilation of proverbs by John Heywood, back in 1562.

And, correct us if we're wrong, but it sounds as if Mr. Heywood's interpretation back in the day might have been a bit different. And not exactly socially acceptable today:

“Some hear and see him whom he heareth nor seeth not
But fields have eyes and woods have ears, ye wot
And also on my maids he is ever tooting.

Can ye judge a man, (quoth I), by his looking?
What, a cat may look on a king, ye know!

My cat's leering look, (quoth she), at first show,
Showeth me that my cat goeth a caterwauling;

And specially by his manner of drawing
To Madge, my fair maid.”

~ John Heywood, The Proverbs and Epigrams of John Heywood, 1562. 

We think we prefer Oxford's take on it.

___________________

Sources:

Phrases.org

Oxford Dictionaries

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2002.

The Proverbs and Epigrams of John Heywood, BiblioBazaar, 2008.

Thursday Trivia: Cat got your tongue?

How many of you grew up with this phrase?

It was most often said by an adult, and - at least in our home - frequently delivered in a teasing manner toward a child suddenly shy around newcomers.

Or perhaps it was delivered in a chiding tone, when you were caught doing something you shouldn’t?

The McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Catch Phrases defines it as “A fanciful explanation for a person’s silence or refusal to speak.”

The phrase isn’t all that old, actually.

Its dates back to the mid-1800’s, both in the U.S. and England. Word Wizard chased it back to 1859, in an article in an Illinois newspaper:

“To this I made no answer. I loved a rainy day, too, but I was not disposed to say so just then. ‘Oh no! The cat has got your tongue has it?’” 

Maxwell wonders whyever anyone would think a cat would want a human tongue, when he already has a perfectly serviceable one?

_______________
Sources:

Jacksonville Journal Courier (Illinois), 23 January, page 2.
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs, Richard A. Spears, McGraw-Hill, September 1, 2003.

GrammarPhobia
WordWizard
Phrases.org: Cat Got Your Tongue?

Thursday Trivia: Catty Remarks

We’ve all heard people make catty remarks, comments that tend to be spiteful and unkind. But where did the term come from?

Beyond the comment that it evolved from “cat” + “y” (as found in most dictionaries), we didn’t see a specific call-out regarding its origins.

Though anyone who has worked with cats in shelters has experienced the sudden turn in behavior that can come if you’re not watching for the subtle warnings and clues that a stressed cat can exhibit.

Considering this, going from "sweet to spiteful" might indeed be the organic origin of today’s phrase.

Before this cat hissed, the signs were there if you knew to look:
airplane ears are a good indicator someone's not happy!
Photo: Tambako via Flickr Creative Commons

We were surprised to learn that the first use of "catty" in print is so recent. The Online Etymology Dictionary dates it back to 1886. We did locate an earlier use, but it was as a nickname for “Catherine” in a book published in London, in 1825:

We did discover an interesting and completely unrelated second meaning.

A catty – or, more properly, kati – was a unit of measure in late-16th century China.

10-Catty/Kati weight from Qin Shi Huang Dynasty.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The East India Company officially determined that one kati = 1.34 pounds back in 1770.

So now you know!

_______________
Sources:
Online Etymology Dictionary
Memidex
The Oxford Dictionary
Wikipedia: cattie
Tales and Miscellaneous Piecces, by Maria Edgeworth. Thomas Davison, Whitefriars. London, 1825.

Kati: Merriam-Webster
Kati: Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

A Dog's ... Breakfast?

Have you ever heard the term, "a dog's breakfast?"  We hadn't!

In 1973, renowned British lexicographer Eric Partridge attributed this phrase to a slang term originating from the lower Glasgow region of Scotland.

Calling it “a very common Scottish and North Country variant since circa 1920,” Partridge stated it simply meant “a mess”.

Perhaps breakfast was served too early for this pup? Photo: Weaselmcfee on Flickr, via Creative Commons 2.0

Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang calls it “a distasteful mess”. Does it suggest slovenly habits of the canine kind?

Before we jump to that conclusion, we must point you to a related phrase: "a dog’s dinner."
If a dog’s breakfast was a distasteful mess, a dog’s dinner was something else entirely.

"Seriously? This better not be all I get for dinner." Photo: Fernando on Flickr, via Creative Commons 2.0

Oxford tells us that to be dressed up like a dog’s dinner meant you wore ridiculous or ostentatious clothes:

“LIKE A (or THE) DOG’S DINNER (also done up like a dog’s dinner, got up . . .) Of dress, etc. [1930s and still in use]: Ostentatious, flashy, or over-elaborate; (also) in an ostentatiously smart or flashy manner; dressed in the height of chic and fashion. [[Note: It’s hard to see any connection between this definition and dog food.]]”

(We got a kick out of Oxford's notation at the end!)

The phrase is probably British in origin, and most likely evolved from another phrase we’ve researched in our Word Origins series – “to put on the dog” (read about that phrase’s origin here).

This dog is ready for dinner. Please...? Photo: Jenny on Flickr, via Creative Commons 2.0

Oddly enough, Phrases.org tells us the first known use found in print came from an American source: the Miami News, in October of 1933:

"And on a bus top at a 57th St. trafic halt a youth from the sidewalk called to a young caigaet-smoking lady at the rail: "What you doing sitting there all dressed up like a dog's dinner?" "

______________
Sources:

A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, Eric Partridge, 1st edition: London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1937.

Wikipedia on Eric Partridge
Word Origins 
Phrases.org
Oxford English Dictionaries Reference #1
Oxford English Dictionaries Reference #2
Word Wizard  

Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathan Green, Orion Publishing Group, Ltd., 2006.

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Thursday Trivia: Police Dogs

Today is Police Officer Memorial Day.

We thought it was the perfect opportunity to post a special edition Word Origin Trivia: the origin of the Police Dog.

(Today, we're not looking up the origin of the phrase "Police Dog" like we'd normally do in this series ~ instead, we're sussing out the origin of the practice itself.)

Police dogs have a long and storied history of service to humankind.

According to the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, the first record of dogs being pressed into military service dates as far back as the Eighteenth Egyptian Dynasty (ca. 1200 BCE).

The elegant Saluki was thought to be the breed of dog used by the Egyptians.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The Ancient History Encyclopedia provides a bit more insight as we move forward through history:

"The great Latin poet Virgil, wrote, “Never, with dogs on guard, need you fear for your stalls a midnight thief”(Georgics III, 404ff) and the writer Varro, in his work on living in the country, says that every family should have two types of dog, a hunting dog and a watchdog(De Re Rustica I.21)."

It's clear that man and dog have had a close working relationship for millenia.

The first printed record of dogs specifically employed by what we would consider the modern version of police departments - at least in the Common Era - appears to date to 14th century France. Here, the faithful canine was charged with the guarding of naval docks and other maritime installations in St. Malo, France.

They were then employed in 1895 to help Parisian police disburse unruly street gangs. This was so successful, Germany decided to develop a formal training program and in 1920, the first official police dog academy came into existence. 

Police dogs-in-training, West Midlands. Can we get a squee?
Photo: West Midlands Police via Creative Commons

Today, we salute the four-legged officers who have helped us keep the peace all around the world for thousands of years.

And we honor each of the many sacrifices made by them in the line of duty.


_______
Sources:
The K-9 Corps: The Use of Dogs in Police Work, William F. Handy, Marlyn Harrington, David J. Pittman. Journal of  Criminal Law and Criminology, Volume 52, Issue 3, September-October, 1961.
Dogs in the Ancient World, Ancient History Encyclopedia, Joshua K. Mark, 2012.
The Dog: Its Behavior, Nutrition, and Health, Linda P. Case. John Wiley & Sons, 2013.
Image #13 in The Album of Petroglyphs, Akhale state web directory, Golpaygan, Iran.
Wikipedia on the Saluki
Eighteenth Dynasty
History.com: 11 Things You Didn't Know About Egypt
Heddlu Police: History of the Police Dog Use of PoliceCanine Units in Narcotic SearchesOf Vehicles, Lt. Robert T. Rolak. School of Police Staff and Command, Eastern Michigan University, October 17, 2000.

Thursday Trivia: Horse of a Different Color

Dorothy & Toto, 1939
Publicity photo, public domain

Guardian of the Emerald City: State your business!

Dorothy, Scarecrow, Lion & Tin Man: We want to see the Wizard!

Guardian: *gasps* The Wizard? But nobody can see the Great Oz! Nobody's ever seen the Great Oz!
Even I've never seen him!

Dorothy: Oh, please! Please, sir! I've got to see the Wizard! The Good Witch of the North sent me!

Guardian: Well, bust my buttons! Why didn't you say that in the first place?  
That's a horse of a different color! Come on in!


You probably all know where this dialog came from: the classic tale, The Wizard of Oz.
(Did you know this year marks the 75th anniversary of the movie?)

And you may have already guessed this wasn't the first use of today's phrase - though it may be one of its most famous.

First: what exactly does "a horse of a different color" mean?

As you may have inferred from the Guardian's comment, this idiom is another way of saying "oh, that's another matter entirely!" In other words, the topic or issue at hand wasn't at all what you had originally thought it was.

We can trace the phrase back 1601, though no doubt it existed earlier. Its first use in print came in a roundabout way by the great Bard, William Shakespeare.

In his play, Twelfth Night, we see a trio of characters scheming against a much maligned Malvolio. Poor Malvolio, a man of puritanical values who has fallen hard for Olivia - and our trio knows it!

Our nefarious trio:

SIR TOBY: He shall think, by the letters that thou wilt drop, that they come from my niece, and that she’s in love with him.
MARIA: My purpose is, indeed, a horse of that color.
SIR ANDREW: And your horse now would make him an ass.
MARIA: Ass, I doubt not.
SIR ANDREW: Oh, ’twill be admirable!

Poor Malvolio!

But wait - Maria did not exactly invoke our phrase, word for word. True. Shakespeare took an idiom of that time and inverted it. This type of play on words was a technique he was fond of using.

No one knows for certain but word historians suspect the phrase's origin came from the sport of jousting in tournaments (which turned from actual war practice in the 11th century to a spectator sport in the 13th).

The horse would wear its knights colors, and one could choose which color you backed to win. If the horse and knight team favored as most likely to win did not, then the tourney went to a horse of a different color!

Bavarian tournament engraving from the 1400s. Public Domain.

By the way, in the Wizard of Oz movie, there really were horses of a different color. To achieve this feat of movie magic, set designers put a paste of jell-o on the horses. The scenes had to be shot quickly before the horses could lick the coloring off.

(And yes, the production crew consulted with the ASPCA prior to landing on jell-o as their go-to coloring source. But please do not try to do this to your pet at home!)

_____________
Sources:

IMDb's Wizard of Oz page of quotations 
IMDb Trivia
Phrases.org

Grammarphobia
Idiomation
MIT's Complete Works of Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
John Fricke, Jacy Scarfone, William Stillman. The Wizard of Oz: The Official 50th Anniversary Pictorial History. Warner Books, 1989.

Thursday Trivia: Gone to the Dogs

You could say today’s phrase is one of Biblical proportions!

First, the definition:  To say a person or place has really "gone to the dogs" means they've really let themselves go, or the place just isn't what it used to be.

In truth, the basis for the concept of “gone to the dogs” did originate in the Torah, specifically from the following verse:
"…you shall not eat flesh of an animal that was torn in the field; to the dog shall you throw it." [Exodus, 22:30-31].

"Stray dog on calle Santa Catalina" by mcgmatt

So how did we get from a literal guideline on food safety, written somewhere between the 16th and the 12th centuries BCE, to today's more figurative expression?

It's a safe bet that the term morphed throughout the ages from its literal meaning to today's more figurative one. A search uncovered hints of the phrase being used in various cultures throughout antiquity. But every attempt to track down and verify those claims proved fruitless.

Dog Statue in Kowloon Walled City Park
Kowloon City, Hong Kong
Wikimedia (GNU Free License)

One Stop English relates one such instance where "gone to the dogs" may have been in use back in China two to three thousand years ago, where dogs weren’t permitted inside the city walls.

Instead, they roamed in packs, often subsisting on rubbish thrown over the wall by those who lived inside. According to this source, when criminals were expelled or banished from the city they were said to have “gone to the dogs.”

But to hear the All-Words site tell it, the origin might be traceable back to an ancient Egyptian belief that a pair of dogs guarded the gates to the underworld, instead.

Though it's plausible that either of these tales might truly be where the phrase originated, there is no source material that we can find to corroborate them.

So much of history has been passed down orally, and countless written texts lost to antiquity that it shouldn’t surprise us (yet it does) that the very earliest use of “gone to the dogs” in print dates only back to the mid-16th century of our current era.

The Oxford English Dictionary dates the first known use of the figurative term to be in 1556, in the book, A Short Treatise on Political Power, by Patrick S. Poole:

“Away with these deceivers of my people to the dogs of Hell, you were masters, and not ministers…”



__________
Sources:

All Words
One Stop English
Phrases.org
Oxford English Dictionary
Poole's A Short Treatise on Political Power
The Japan Times

Thursday Trivia: Copycat!

The word copycat is so ubiquitous, it's easy to miss when considering the origin of pet-related words or phrases.

But it's really fairly young, as words go.

It's a slang term - an Americanism. As such, it was probably in use colloquially for a bit before it first appeared in print.

It means to imitate or mimic someone or something. And it has a slightly negative or disapproving connotation. Being called a copycat isn't really a compliment, after all.

Its first use in print has been traced to a late 19th century American writer by the name of Constance Cary Harrison (we'd never heard of her, either!).

And - you'll love this! - the book was written from the point of view of a fox terrier named Dame Trot. Her canine companion was a fox terrier named Paul Pry. The book details several adventures with her human family (the master, the mistress and "our boys") in day trips set around Bar Harbor, Maine.

Here's a little snippet from the book - and incidentally, the first known use of copycat in print:

An intrepid intern at the web-based magazine, Slate, is to be commended for her sleuthing. She was the one who actually tracked this down, and the folks over at the Stack Exchange  forwarded her research to the Online Etymology Dictionary for updating.

In the course of researching this, we came across a pretty nifty tool we had not known about. This tool is called the Ngram, and it tracks a word's use in print back through the centuries!

We plugged the word copycat (and all variations we could think of) into Ngram and here's what we found:

Sure enough - there's our little blip, right at 1887!

Again, we apologize for our mom, who tends to geek out at the most inappropriate times. Like now, when she should be showing gratuitous photos of Maxwell being a big copycat. When everyone knows it's not possible to copy purrfection. 

Who is copying whom, we ask?


_______
Sources:
Dictionary definition
Archive.org's online copy of Bar Harbor Days, by Constance Cary Harrison
Slate.com's article 
The Stack Exchange: English Language & Usage
Google Books' Ngram site
Reference.com's etymology
Wikipedia on Copycat 
Wikipedia on Constance Cary harrison

Thursday Trivia: Lying Doggo

Here’s a question for our friends over the pond: is there any truth to the rumor that the British are fond of adding “-o” to the end of a word?
I ask because there is no definitive origin to today’s word. The closest we can come is a definition from Oxford, stating that it is “of obscure origin, apparently from dog + -o.”

I ran into many sites that claimed this was due to the British penchant for adding “-o” to the end of a word, often using the word “boyo” to prove their point.

So what say you? Truth or exaggeration?

Of all the many things I read about the origin of the phrase “lying doggo,” the most interesting was an obscure reference by author William Safire in his book, Watching My Language: Adventures in the Word Trade.

In it, Safire references another book and notes its glossary entry as stating that “doggo” meant “still” or “quiet”… and that it was of East Indian derivation.

Lying doggo. Photo: andrewasmith, Creative Commons

I have found absolutely nothing to back this up, and our go-to sources don’t say a word about this, so we find it highly suspect. Interesting, yet suspect!

There is also some debate on what “lying doggo” actually means. Some say it simply means to lay still, like a dog in hiding whereas others feel it has more complexity, suggesting that it conveys more of an impressions of “hanging back, “ or “staying out of the fray.”

Um, #DoggoFAIL? Photo: komehachi888, Creative Commons

The one thing we can tell you with absolute certainty is that it first appeared in a published work in 1899:

"I wud lie most powerful doggo whin I heard a shot," wrote British novelist and poet Rudyard Kipling.

If we heard a shot, we would, too, sir.

_____________________
 Sources:

The Works of Rudyard Kipling: Kim, Rudyard Kipling, page 304. Doubleday & McClure, 1899.
Word Detective 
Wordsmith.org 
New York Times
The Oxford Dictionaries