12 Jan 2016, 2:23 am
zkydz wrote:
naturalplastic wrote:
That expression is actually about "cat fish" apparently.
I would have figured it had more to do with getting cat gut for musical instruments and other things. Especially since the words in one form or another had originated other than the US.Various sources are vague at best, but the earliest date I have found that is consistent is 1678 in "John Ray's Book of English Proverbs". It has also used dogs and other various animals over time.
I based my conclusion on higher authority: the country rock band Alabama!
In "Play Me Mountain Music" they sing:
"I'll float on down the river to the Cajun hideaway
Ill swim across the river just to prove that I am a man
Just spend the day being lazy.
and being nature's friend
climb a long tall hickory
bendin' over skin'in' cats."
In that water/landscape of idyllic bliss it sounds like theyre talking about skinning cat fish, and not about dismembering kitty cats. So thats how I arrived at my theory. But if the expression predated southern USA good-old-boy culture then who knows?
12 Jan 2016, 9:24 am
naturalplastic wrote:
zkydz wrote:
naturalplastic wrote:
That expression is actually about "cat fish" apparently.
I would have figured it had more to do with getting cat gut for musical instruments and other things. Especially since the words in one form or another had originated other than the US.Various sources are vague at best, but the earliest date I have found that is consistent is 1678 in "John Ray's Book of English Proverbs". It has also used dogs and other various animals over time.
I based my conclusion on higher authority: the country rock band Alabama!
In "Play Me Mountain Music" they sing:
"I'll float on down the river to the Cajun hideaway
Ill swim across the river just to prove that I am a man
Just spend the day being lazy.
and being nature's friend
climb a long tall hickory
bendin' over skin'in' cats."
In that water/landscape of idyllic bliss it sounds like theyre talking about skinning cat fish, and not about dismembering kitty cats. So thats how I arrived at my theory. But if the expression predated southern USA good-old-boy culture then who knows?
In that part of the country, we did call it skinning cats if we referenced fishing. I just did the research to find the 1678 date. But still, even though I grew up primarily in the south, I never connected it to fish...always the destruction of some poor feline. And, well, catgut was used for stringed instruments.
Maybe that shows you how off my mind is by way of ignoring what is all around me and always drawing my own conclusions.....
Oddly enough, I also grew up primarily in the south, with southern parents and family that had molasses thick accents, yet, I never got one, or much of one. I wonder if that has to do with the thing they say about speech patterns and intonations being different in Aspies.
12 Jan 2016, 2:03 pm
