The Curious—and Creepy—Origins of ‘Cat Got Your Tongue?’
The Cat-o’-Nine-Tails and Naval Punishment
The theory considered most plausible involves a very different kind of cat. Beginning in the 17th century, the British Royal Navy, and later the U.S. Navy, used a whip known as the cat-o’-nine-tails to discipline sailors. This instrument was designed to inflict severe pain. It consisted of a handle attached to nine cords, each tipped with knots or metal.
Floggings were public and intended to enforce strict obedience. Sailors who endured this kind of punishment were often left physically weakened and emotionally shaken. Some historians believe a beaten sailor might be too exhausted, fearful or traumatized to speak afterward. In that context, someone might ask whether the cat had taken his tongue.
“Even though the cat-o’-nine-tails folk etymology is probably the most popular, I have a hard time seeing how it works,” says Adams. “First, a bosun [a ship’s officer] used the cat against someone’s chest, shoulders and back. I’ve never heard of the risk of losing a tongue from discipline with a cat-o’-nine-tails. Second, the British Navy abandoned flogging, by any means, as discipline in 1879, so it would be odd indeed for people to start saying ‘cat got your tongue’ just as the cat wasn’t used at all.”
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 