Curious Cat's Pajamas Trivia Quiz

Answer: Very good, cool, I like it.

Anything that's the cat's pajamas is fabulous; we like it. The phrase began perhaps with E.B. Katz, an English tailor, who made silk pajamas for royalty and the rich in the late 1700s. It was desirable to have Katz's pajamas. In the 1920s in the US, Thomas Dorgan used the phrase as slang to describe flappers of the jazz era. Pajamas were a new US fashion at the time, so cat's pajamas meant something wonderful.

Answer: Tom

In 1760, an anonymous author wrote "The Life and Adventures of a Cat" about a ram cat, the name for male cats at the time. Named Tom, this ram cat was popular with the ladies, and the story was popular as well, so male cats have been called Tomcats ever since, in particular those who roam, romance, and incur paternity suits.

Answer: At a loss for words

People often say to a shy or stymied child, "What's the matter? Has a cat got your tongue?" It means that one's at a loss for words. If the cat literally had your tongue, it would be hundreds of years ago, and you'd been punished for lying by having your tongue ripped out. Your tongue was then fed to the king's cats. Holy crackamoli.

Answer: You vomit

To shoot the cat means to vomit. This is presumably because felines are so prone to vomiting hairballs and parts of birds or mice, and make such a hacking, rasping, show of it.

Answer: Drowned animals

Jonathan Swift wrote a poem about drowned small animals and debris washing down the streets in a hard rain, called "Description of a City Shower", published in 1710. In a later poem Swift calls the phenomenon "raining cats and dogs". I won't quote the distressing image here. Be grateful for your city ordinances and cleaning crews. Keep those cats indoors, especially in bad weather.

Answer: Let the cat out of the bag

Generally translated, it means to buy a cat in a bag. The phrase "let the cat out of the bag" was first published in London about 1760. It also appears in Dutch. It likely came from opening a bag at market, to make sure the pig you were about to buy really was a pig. Today it means to expose a trick or secret.

Answer: Care, or prying

The phrase was first "care killed the cat" meaning worry or sorrow brings one to a bad end. Care later meant to pry, ask too many questions, or meddle. The inquisitive cat seems a good metaphor for both worrisome situations and poking your nose where it shouldn't go. Case in point, I woke up to much rattling and scratching, to find that my cat had his head stuck inside a box.

Answer: A fat cat

In the 1920s and again in the 1960s, US protesters raged against "fat cats" in the government and market who gain undeserved wealth, failed to balance the budget, spent funds without regard for the common person, and accepted millions of dollars in political donations for influence of outcome. People felt that the political parties no longer stood for the people, and that "fat cats" in corporations and politics merely sought to pile up riches in their own pockets. Hmm.

This sounds like protests in both the George Bush and Barack Obama years, in the US and globally. Motto of the fat cat: "No matter what you have done wrong, always try to make it look like the dog did it". -Unknown author

Answer: A game played with strings

A cat's cradle is a game where a framework of string is created within the fingers. The term may come from early Europe, when people believed the presence of a cat increased fertility. Soon after a wedding, a cat was secured in a cradle and carried into the newlywed's house, ensuring an early pregnancy.

Answer: Skin a cat

Skin a cat: an English proverb from the 1600s, the original phrase seems to be "there are more ways to kill a dog than hanging". Mark Twain wrote in 1889, "She was wise, subtle, and knew more than one way to skin a cat". Other variations said choke a cat with cream, and choke a dog with pudding.

In the southern US they skin catFISH. In gymnastics they "skin a cat" on the rings. As far as I can tell, no felines were skinned in the making of this proverb.