If the cat has got your tongue, it has nothing to do with hocus-pocus. IWSG. Being Thankful. Quotes.

  Origins: a recurring post in which I delve into the history of a word or phrase.

Today's phrase is: Cat got your tongue 

There are moments when we may suddenly pause when we are talking and can't remember what comes next, or even what the heck we were talking about. These are the moments when the cat has a hold of our tongues. There is no sure origin for this saying, but there are three intriguing possibilities. From newest to oldest, they are perfect for this haunting season. 

The first written use of the phrase is from 1881 in a magazine called Bayou Monthly -- which hints that it's somewhere in the Southern United States -- when an unknown author wrote, "Has the cat got your tongue, as the children say?"  'As the children say' leads me to think the saying had already been around for a while, like maybe back to the seventeen and eighteen hundreds and our first possible source for the saying.

Once there was this thing called the cat o' nine tails. It was used to punish sailors and slaves who didn't follow orders etc. A person could be flogged from 5 to 100 times. Flesh could be stripped from the bone. A person could die. It was used to flog people into submission, to keep them quiet. Hence the saying, "Cat got your tongue?"

Next up is the very possible Middle Ages when all good Christians feared witches, particularly witches with black cats. It was thought the cats were "familiars" (a word I'm going to have look into). It was believed these witches either used the cats to do their evil deeds or that the witches turned into the cat. Either way, these beings could steal your tongue and keep you from talking.

Last up, step into my time machine and let's go into the distant past, back to ancient Egypt when cats were worshiped. The goddess of motherhood was a half-cat, half-human creature named Bastet. Back then if people blasphemed, lied, spoke out of turn, or said something against the government, their tongues could be cut out and fed to the cats. 

Be quiet or the cat will literally have your tongue!

Today's Weird Word is: Hocus-Pocus

Fleuron from book:

The old hocus pocus. Being the anatomy 

of legerdemain; or, the whole art of jugling. 

Set forth in its proper colours, ... From 1740

This "magic" conjuring word may have originated from the Latin blessing given at Mass, Hoc est corpus meum, meaning "This is my body."

An early spelling from the 1620s was Hocas Pocas. In the 1670s jugglers also used hiccus doccius or hiccus doctius, which the OED says is a "corruption of" of the Latin hicce es doctus meaning "here is the learned man."  There is also holus-bolus, another bit of fake Latin meaning "all at a gulp, all at once."  

All of these possible sham Latin phrases have been around for a while, "hocus-pocus" being first recorded in the 1640s. What's interesting is their connection first to jugglers, not magicians.

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Posting the First Wednesday of every month, the Insecure Writer's Support Group, is the brainchild of Alex Cavanaugh. YOU can sign up HERE to participate.

Every month a question will be posed that may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Remember, the question is optional. You can write about anything that relates to your writing journey.

Let's give a warm welcome to our co-hosts: Beth Camp, Crystal Collier, and Cathrina Constantine!

This month's question is: What is the most favorite thing you have written, published or not? And why? This is hard. Most everything I've written/published is my favorite, from the first story I every got published in Spider magazine, to my last novel The Bowl and the Stone and the articles I wrote for Destination magazine. Currently, my most favorite thing is something I've been working on so long I won't even tell you how long it's been in the cooking, but I've finally taken the leap and sent it off to my editor. (GULP)

Quotes of the Month

“Villainy wears many masks, none so dangerous as the mask of virtue.”

 Ichabod Crane, Sleepy Hollow

“We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones.” 

Stephen King, American Author

"By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes."

William Shakespeare, Macbeth

"there are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls."

George Carlin

Being Thankful

Today I'm thankful for music.

What are you thankful for? Which of the possible origins for "cat got your tongue" is your favorite? What your favorite piece that you've ever written and/or published?