31-Jan-2007, 10:17
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 Re: eat someone's tongue
In addition, 'To say that "the cat has got" someone's tongue is, of course, to say that the person is temporarily rendered speechless by either shock or embarrassment. It is almost always phrased as a question ("Has the cat got your tongue?") by someone who has the upper hand in the conversation, ... ." ' Read more here: Word-Detective.com
'cat got your tongue? - why are you not talking?/have you nothing to say? - there is no generally agreed origin among etymologists for this, although there does seem to be a broad view that the expression came into popular use in the 1800's, and first appeared in print in 1911. In my view the most logical explanation is that it relates to the 'cat-o-nine-tails' whip used in olden days maritime punishments, in which it is easy to imagine that the victim would be rendered incapable of speech or insolence. A less likely, but no less dramatic suggested origin, is that it comes from the supposed ancient traditional middle-eastern practice of removing the tongues of liars and feeding them to cats. Source
Last edited by Casiopea; 31-Jan-2007 at 10:23.
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Re: eat someone's tongue 
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