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Idiom: The cat is out of the bag
Well, we have an interesting one today: the cat is out of the bag.
It’s interesting because it has nothing to do with furry cats, yet the cat still comes out of the bag.
The modern meaning of today’s idiom is that a secret is no longer a secret because it has been shared, revealed to, or discovered by someone.
That’s the boring part.
The interesting part is the origin of the idiom.
Back in the day when Britannia (Britain) ruled the waves, life on board a British navy ship was tough indeed.
You see, first of all, most sailors were press-ganged, which means to be tricked or forced into military service.
It’s needless to say, many sailors didn’t want to be in the Navy in the first place.
Therefore, discipline was bad, and punishment was very strict.
Punishment had to be quite severe to ensure that sailors did not quit, run away or revolt against their officers.
For this reason, the men were whipped with a cat o’ nine tails.
This whip had nine strings of cotton, which would cut the skin when a person was hit with it.
The cat o’ nine tails, or cat for short, was kept in a bag.
As a rule, if the cat was out of the bag, it had to be used; it could not be put back without being used.
All of the ship’s men had to witness the punishment.
Therefore, there was no way to keep it a secret.
The next time you accidentally let the cat out of the bag, be thankful that no cat o’ nine tails will caress your back.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least a 6th-grade education (age 11).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 83.
The higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100, the easier the passage is to read.