I'll Be A Monkey's Uncle, And Other Ways Animals Have Affected The English Language

Animal idioms surround us. Let's look at some.

Humans from the earliest times have had a unique relationship with animals. I supposed our earliest connections with animals were two-fold; food source and predator. Then, sometime in our evolution, animals began to take on newer roles of companions and family. Generally speaking, you will get a strong response in Western culture if you ask a group of people this question. Dog or Cat?

Animals have also worked their way into the English language via idioms and other expressions.

Idioms are phrases such that a person cannot determine the meaning from the literal meaning of the words that make up the phrase. According to dictionary.com, the earliest use of the term idiom is from the 1560s. “Idiom” comes from the Latin word "Idioma," meaning peculiarity. That certainly describes an idiom; raining cats and dogs would be a peculiar sight to see. See my story "It's Raining Cats and Dogs."

Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle.

This phrase is an expression I've heard most of my life, though I've rarely heard it recently.

The meaning is a spoken reaction to something that surprises one or finds hard to believe. My mother told me this expression became popular in the late 1920s and 1930s due to the Scopes Monkey Trial of Tennessee. The Scopes Monkey Trial (History.com) was a famous trial in the USA. A young high school science teacher was accused of teaching Charles Darwin's theory of evolution in defiance of Tennessee state law.

The phrase probably originated much earlier due to Darwin's book, "The Descent of Man." According to h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition, this is the first documented utterance of the phrase.

"Strange but true, this bizarre saying was first uttered by a sarcastic little man who was the editor of a publishing house in the 1800s. Upon having read Darwin's first draft of 'The Descent of Man' in which Darwin proposed his Theory of Evolution which was that man was related to monkeys, the editor shook with outraged laughter and snorted, "Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle." (https://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/plain/A3628)

I can understand how the expression caught on. I have many nephews whose adolescent behavior resembled monkeys. That would make me a monkey's uncle.

Many parents dread discussing the birds and the bees with their children.

The "birds and the bees" means the process of making babies. Many parents find this discussion difficult.

It was no problem for my parents. Their solution was to avoid the issue altogether. Everything I learned in my formative years came from school friends, Playboy magazine, and watching my sister make out with her boyfriend on the living room couch.

When it came to having that discussion with my daughter, I chose the traditional approach of letting her mother explain things. My 12-year-old daughter's opinion was, "Ooo, Gross!"

Parental aversion to directly discuss the topic of sex goes back many years.

One of the early references to this bird and bees as a euphemism for reproduction is Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 1825 poem, "Work Without Hope."

My favorite use of the birds and the bees as a euphemism for having sex comes from Cole Porter's lyrics to the 1928 song "Let's Do It."

It is nature that is all. Simply telling us to fall in love. And that's why birds do it, bees do it. Even educated fleas do it. Let's do it, let's fall in love. (Cole Porter, 1928) (livescience.com)

You're quiet. What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?

This phrase is a curious expression. When a person is speechless, it is said the cat has their tongue.

I thought the expression came from when people commonly believed witches cast spells over others and had to do with black cats. It would have been much more pleasant than other possible origins. I'll let you decide for yourself which source you prefer.

One possible source heralds the English navy's preferred means of shipboard punishment. Striking a man's back, called flogging, was done with a whip called a Cat-o'-nine-tails. It was so painful victims often would go silent during the ordeal.

Another possible source was in ancient Egypt, "liars' and blasphemers' tongues were cut out and fed to the cats." (grammarly.com) (grammarist.com)

Let the cat out of the bag.

Letting the cat out of the bag means sharing a secret.

The first documented use of the phrase was in 1760 from a book review in The London Magazine, "We could have wished that the author had not let the cat out of the bag." (mentalfloss.com) Exactly how this phrase came to mean disclosing a secret is not clear. Some sources suggest it references a Cat-o'-nine-tails coming out of a bag. That doesn't make sense because the standard protocol was to muster the ship's company to witness the punishment. There was no secret in that. Other sources suggest that dishonest merchants would switch cats for rabbits or piglets purchased in the market. But cats meow when distressed; thus, they don't have to come out of a bag to give themselves away.

It was that last straw that broke the camel's back.

This expression means a lot of small things can build up to be a big problem. Although one strand of straw is light, if enough strands are put on a camel's back, it will be too much weight. The expression originates from an ancient Arab proverb that states the last straw may weigh next to nothing; it is the last straw that breaks the camel's back (idioms.online)

The administrator said coordinating the Computer Technology teachers was like trying to herd cats.

A school district office administrator talked about the Computer Technology teachers in a large district. Their program materials were diverse, and the courses they taught varied. There was very little coordination to standardize practices. This disconnection was a bit of a problem for students transferring between schools. The teachers felt they could do what they wanted due to the critical shortage of Computer Technology teachers. I saw a steady stream of new administrators try to coordinate teachers and fail.

Cats are notoriously individual-natured animals. Most people can't keep cats moving in a pack or a group. To say that something is like trying to herd cats means that it is difficult to manage.

One night I awoke to the sound of an enthusiastic game of cat and mouse in the hall.

The game that awakened me was a cat and mouse game. My cat had caught a mouse. My kitty chased the mouse down the hall and pounced on it before the mouse could escape. She released the mouse, and the game would begin again. The game continued for several minutes before I finally got up and ended the fun.

The idiom of cat and mouse refers to the interaction between two parties. There is a significant power disparity between the two and often involves a bit of cruelty or mistreatment of the superior over the inferior. "This phrase has been around for hundreds of years, tracing back to 1675 and even being used in the Grimm Brothers' fairy tale 'Cat and Mouse in Partnership.' "(theidioms.com)

In 1966, the Washington Redskins (now called Commanders) played a cat and mouse football game with the New York Giants, winning 72 to 41.

Everyone at work was carrying on as if nothing was amiss. No one wanted to call attention to the elephant in the room.

The elephant in the room is an issue or topic that all know is there, but no one wants to discuss. For many years throughout the southern United States, statues of Confederate leaders have adorned the grounds of state capitals and public parks. It has only been recently that many of these monuments have been removed. Most citizens agreed that the relics of the past were offensive to many Americans, but no one wanted to address the elephant in the room.

Copyright 2022 Harold Zeitung All Rights Reserved

Disclosure: This story has been edited by Grammarly.com

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