Cat Got Your Tongue?

A phrase with more than one gruesome-sounding backstory attached to it, none of which actually holds up. One theory points to the Royal Navy's cat o' nine tails whip, the punishment supposedly leaving sailors too shocked to speak, but there's no solid documentary evidence linking the whip specifically to this phrase. A darker theory claims ancient Egyptians cut out the tongues of liars and fed them to cats, a story repeated online with total confidence and zero supporting archaeological or textual evidence. A third theory ties it to medieval witchcraft trials and cats as a witch's familiar, but the phrase doesn't appear in writing until 1881, in an American magazine, long after the European witch trials had ended. The honest answer is that nobody has found a convincing origin for any of it. It may be nothing more sinister than a simple, slightly odd question adults have long asked shy children.