FELINE FOOLS ERRANDS AND OTHER MISCELLANY

"To bell the cat" is believed to have come into common usage at the time of an English King who aroused the jealousy of several noblemen by bestowing titles upon favourite architects. When the unhappy nobles met and discussed how to get rid of the King's favourites they used the euphemism "who will bell the cat". It means to risk confrontation for the common good. However, "to stroke the cat" means to approach a problem/trouble in a quiet or cautious manner.

"One sends a cat to England and it says "meow" when it comes home" means when someone is sent on an impossible errand, he comes back just as wise as when he left home. While thinking of impossible or foolish errands, the French have a saying that "it is foolish to carry a cat across a stream". But not all tasks are fools' errands are impossible and "never was the cat drowned who could see the shore"! And if the errand doesn't involve much travel it might be "like a cat's walk - a little way and back" (19th Century).

In the days before Playstations, "Cat's Cradle" was a traditional children's puzzle-game played with hands and string. It involved making box-like shapes by twisting and weaving a loop of string around the fingers. The name is a corruption of "cratchcradle", itself a corruption of the French for manger since some of the string shapes resembled mangers. Cattle's feed racks are still known as crathes.

More common in the world of finance than in daily speech, a "dead cat bounce" is an automatic recovery in a financial market as supposedly unsaleable commodities are snapped up by bargain hunters. A "dead cat" would almost certainly be an unsaleable commodity - "about as much use as a dead cat" - in spite of the cartoon book about "Uses of a Dead Cat". It could allude to the fact that while cats supposedly land on their feet after a fall, even a dead cat will bounce if dropped from a great height. Unfortunately for the latter derivation of the saying, corpses tend to land with a heavy thud (a nasty squelch if they fall from a great height) so the explanation of even dead cats becoming saleable seems more likely. "Catspraddle" (from Trinidad) means an undignified fall; it conjures up an image of that most dignified of creatures landing in an ungainly manner.

"Cat stones", comes from the Scottish "cat stane". Derived from the Celtic "cath". The stones mark the site of a battle. The gory sounding "cat's brains" is an archaic name given to a geological formation of sandstone veined with chalk. Meanwhile, "cat's eye" is a type of Chrysoberyl, although some quartzes are also given this name. Of course, "cat's eyes" are also the reflectors embedded in roads to aid motorists at night or in fog. When struck by headlights, they light up like cats' eyes. "Cat-eyed" means able to see in the dark, while "cat-footed" means light-footed, sure-footed and agile. In nautical terms, "cat's paw" means a light air current, indicated by a ripple on a calm sea. It often heralds the end of a calm period of weather. In nautical parlance, "cat's paw" also refers to a type of loop formed in a rope. A "cat's whisker" was the very fine wire that made contact with the crystal in early crystal wireless sets.

<p,"Cat ice" is thin, almost transparent ice where the water has receded from underneath it; it is to fragile to bear the weight of a cat. "Cat-lap" was a contemptuous name for non-alcoholic drinks, such as the newly introduced tea, while "cat-nap" is a short or light sleep. Such as cats often take throughout the day. In other contexts, "cat-nap" means cat theft, being derived from the words "cat" and "kidnap".

Quot;Cat and kittens" were the large and small pewter pots in which beer was served in taverns, hence "cat and kitten sneaking" meant stealing those pots from the tavern rather than sneaking about like a stealthy cat or kitten.

While a good-natured or easily dominated person might be called a "pussycat", an embittered or scowling person is more likely to be called a "sourpuss". The term derives not from puss, but from "buss", the old word for face. Hence it means sour-faced.

A "cat-call" expresses impatience, ridicule or displeasure, much as a cat might yowl or wail at a feline intruder. Cat-calls from theatre stalls or boxes resembled the caterwauling that occurs when several tomcats line up on a fence to vocally dispute territorial rights or serenade females. A "cats' concert" or "cat's' chorus" might occur on the stage itself; it means a discordant din reminiscent of caterwauling cats. A performer faced with cat-calls might do well to retreat at the risk of being termed a "scaredy cat". Cats are intelligent enough to retreat when threatened by a larger or better armed enemy and other potentially harmful situations; this gives us the British "scaredy cat" and the American "fraidy cat".