Who Let The Cat Out Of The Bag?  

I don't have a cat but I am surprised how they manage to hide underneath a car and they are so wise to get out of it before the driver puts on the engine. © ronaldinu 2008

If I recall correctly, it comes from when people used to buy piglets and they would be put in a sack - sometimes the purchaser would get home and discover their piglet was a cat and they'd been conned.

My cats actually love playing in bags. When my husband goes to the health food store to buy our produce and fruits, they always use a paper sack. Our cats LOVE to play in that paper bag until it's a pile of shreds on the floor.

In any event, I wonder that myself. I also want to know who "they" are because "they" sure say a lot. You know who "they" are but you really don't know who "they" are. As in "you know what they say..." Who is "they" and why do they say so much? Why do I want to believe them?

I have no idea but it does bring up a good theme: Where do all these strange sayings originate? However, yours probably comes from the fascination that cats had when shopping bags were made of paper, not plastic. I saw many a cat playing wildly and lengthily inside those.

Meaning

Disclose a secret.

Origin

There are two commonly heard suggested origins of this phrase. One relates to the fraud of substituting a cat for a piglet at markets. If you let the cat out of the bag you disclosed the trick - and avoided buying a pig in a poke (bag). This form of trickery is long alluded to in the language and 'pigs in a poke' are recorded as early as 1530.

The other theory is that the 'cat' referred to is the cat o' nine tails, which was used to flog ill-disciplined sailors. Again, this has sufficient historical record to be at least possible. The cat o' nine tails was widely used and was referred to in print many years prior to the first use of 'let the cat out of the bag'. The 'nine tails' part of the name derives from the three strands of cord that the rope lashes were made from. Each of the cords were in turn made from three strands of string. When unbraided a piece of rope separated into nine strings. The 'cat' part no doubt alluded to the scratches that the knotted ends of the lash made on the victim's back, like those from a cat's claws.

http://www.phrases.org.uk...


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Wolfie I found this for you:

Who Let The Cat Out Of The Bag
The origins of this phrase come from when farmers would sell chickens at market. Most of the time they would just throw the chickens in a bag and sell them as however many were supposidly in there. But cats were cheaper than chickens so many times farmers would put a cat into the bag with the chickens and if someone suspected something they would open the bag. At that point the cat would jump out of the bag, thus giving away the secret

Have fun,

Kash

I am thinking I read this somewhere. I think in the days of open air markets, people would sell a pig in a poke (bag). Dishonest dealers would put a cat in the bag instead of the piglet, to fool the buyer. Sometimes someone would "let the cat out of the bag" and the dirty dealer would get caught.
I think this is it, either that, or I just made up my own myth.

actually the saying is every where in the world and we in Africa where made to understand that the saying came from our forefathers who have the fore site of everything . they are not educated but have the wisdom and understanding from God. you need not border yourself about it but take it the way it is understood by you. provided you can read meanings to it.

Very clever wolfie! I don't know where the saying came from, but, I had to answer because I have to tell you that my cat loves plastic bags. Whenever she hears me rustling them after coming home from the grocery store she gets all excited and looks into every plastic bag like a child. It's so cute. When the bags are empty she'll stick her head in them and finally she'll lay on them. Of course, this whole time I'm supervising her. I would never let her play with them if I weren't around to watch. She is such a card!
Purrs,
Catwoman=^..^= & Mija

Hi wolfie, This is another of those old sayings of which it is difficult to find the origin. The phase dates back to mid eighteenth century England and had the same meaning as now, but there is dispute about how it first came about. One story says that farmers taking piglets in a bag to sell at the market would sometimes substitute a cat for a pig, and if the buyer opened the bag, the cat would jump out and the trickster would be caught. Another tale says that a cat would sometimes be put in a bag with chickens LOL. It is also said that it refers to the cat o'nine tails with which lazy sailors were punished and was supposedly kept in a bag on board of ships. In the latter case there's no reference to a secret being let out. Blessings.