The story, as I’ve heard it but can not verify, is that folks used to sell piglets in the marketplace and would, while the purchaser was not looking, slip a cat (cats being plentiful and of no great economic value) into the bag instead of the piglet. The cat weighed about the same and would squirm in the same fashion, and the unscrupulous vendor could count on the buyer not to open the bag until they were home for fear of losing their new purchase, by which time the vendor would be long gone. Occasionally, though, something would happen and the buyer would, by accident or not, allow the frightened cat to escape before getting very far and the secret would be out (and the vendor tarred and feathered or otherwise punished). Thus, telling a secret openly was similar to "letting the cat out of the bag."
I really have no idea if this is true, but it makes a certain amount of sense and is a nice story.
BTW, "pig in a poke" is purportedly from the same source, being that the pig was supposed to be in the bag, and a poke was another name for a bag.
[quote author=Jack link=board=idiom;num=1064354398;start=0#2 date=09/24/03 at 12:26:56]a poke was another name for a bag.
Still is in Scotland.
Many’s the time that visitors from the south, on concluding a purchase, have been starled to hear the attractive young salesperson enquire: "D’ye want a poke?"
[quote author=Coemgenus link=board=idiom;num=1064354398;start=0#3 date=09/24/03 at 19:06:05][center]...[/center] Many’s the time that visitors from the south, on concluding a purchase, have been starled to hear the attractive young salesperson enquire: "D’ye want a poke?"
[quote author=Coemgenus link=board=idiom;num=1064354398;start=0#5 date=09/24/03 at 20:27:23]
The startlement*, Henri, is due to the belief that one is being invited to poke her first (and in a very special way).
Coemgenus
And all this from the same Henri who in another thread accused me (obliquely) of immorality? Hah. Poke where you will, good Sir, but don’t poke it at me.
- PW
Coemgenus, you are certainly a refreshing douche to this Agora.
PW[quote author=Palewriter link=board=idiom;num=1064354398;start=0#7 date=09/24/03 at 23:55:49]And all this from the same Henri who in another thread accused me (obliquely) of immorality? ...
[quote author=Sitran link=board=idiom;num=1064354398;start=0#6 date=09/24/03 at 20:41:55] ... PS Habet et musca splenem, et formica bilem [emphasis added, MHD].
I don’t know about that, Sitran ; do ants, or other arthropods, for that matter have separate livers that produce bile ? I searched under «liver» and «hepar» (the Greek equivalent) here, but failed to find anything. Any entomologists out there ?...
[quote author=Palewriter link=board=idiom;num=1064354398;start=0#14 date=09/28/03 at 23:13:30]Hm. Are you proposing a "Bill" board?
[Quotation marks added for emphasis. -tcw]
Yes. Something to appropriately adorn the "Gates" of Hell!
[quote author=Tim Ward link=board=idiom;num=1064354398;start=15#15 date=09/29/03 at 09:54:55] ... Something to appropriately adorn the "Gates" of Hell!;)
Seems somebody beat you to it, Tim:
Per me si va ne la citta’ dolente, per me si va ne l’etterno dolore, per me si va tra la perduta gente. Giustizia mosse il mio alto fattore: fecemi la divina podestate, la somma sapienza e ‘l primo amore. Dinanzi a me non fuor cose create se non etterne, e io etterno duro. Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate.
Um… I put that nice Italian quote you supplied into my favorite translator, but it seems to be an inside joke.
For me the citta’ is gone some hurting, for me goes of it etterno the pain, for me is gone between lost people. Justice moved my high factor: fecemi the divine one podestate, the sum wisdom and ’ l first love. Dinanzi to me not fuor created things if not etterne, and hard I etterno. Left ogne hope, intrate you ch’.
-Tim
who is particularly fond of the phrase, "Justice moved my high factor."
