Donate SIGN UP

origin

Avatar Image
susieq2 | 09:43 Wed 10th Nov 2004 | Phrases & Sayings
2 Answers
Who's she? The cat's mother? I know what it means but where did it come from?
Gravatar

Answers

1 to 2 of 2rss feed

Best Answer

No best answer has yet been selected by susieq2. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.

For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.

Nobody's certain, but click http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-cat1.htm for some enlightenment.

As per the above link, I was chastised in this way many times as a child.  It was deemed more polite to use a lady's name or proper form of address (Mum/Grandma, etc.) rather than say "'she' told me" or "'she' said so".

 

The part about the cat comes, I think, from the fact that a cat which has had a litter is referred to just as a "she-cat", whereas other animals have other words like lioness, bitch, mare, sow, etc.  Not that some of these would be any more polite, of course...

1 to 2 of 2rss feed

Do you know the answer?

origin

Answer Question >>