先写个小总结放在最前面：这个主要参考自一些国外的问答的网站上的三个不同来源的回答。
这三个回答有重合之处，在前两个回答中，我将这部分重合用粗体标出，这个重复之处就是流传最广的「都市传说」了。这个解释指出，这个惯用语与海员们受到的一种酷刑有关，与这种酷刑有关的刑具叫做「九尾鞭」（直译应该叫做「九尾猫」，以下文字和图片引用自维基百科『
』条目：它最初在英国皇家海军以及英国的陆军中用作为重体罚的刑具，在英国和其它一些国家的执法体罚中也有过实用。九尾鞭这个名称在英语中首次出现于1695年。名称的来源可能是它导致的平行的伤痕像爪导致的伤痕一样。它的设计可能比其名称更早。）因此人们或许吞吞吐吐的原因并非literally地与作为动物的猫有关，而可能与九尾鞭这种刑具有关，直接面对酷刑，所以才吞吞吐吐，看起来也很合理。
但是这个解释的可靠性仍然是可疑的，不过它仍然是一个最被流传的又略合理的解释，也因此大家似乎都把这样的说法看成是一个「来源」。只是大家并不认为这个回答就是唯一一个可信的解释，这个词还很有可能就仅仅是来自于小朋友们的玩笑话。通过各类词典可以知道这个词最早出现在字典中的时间、以及现在这个词的用法。但这个词的终极的来源，似乎还并没有解释太清楚。不管怎样，前两个答案都指出，从字典收录的情况来看，这个词在英语世界的广泛使用或许并没有那么长时间的历史。我想，这是下面第三个答案所提供的4个理论不够可靠的地方。
第一个解释来自The meanings and origins of sayings and phrases： Cat got your tongue?
'Cat got your tongue?' is the shortened form of the query 'Has the cat got your tongue?' and it is the short form that is more often used. It is somewhat archaic now but was in common use until the 1960/70s. It was directed at anyone who was quiet when they were expected to speak, and often to children who were being suspiciously unobtrusive.
There's no derivation that involves any actual cat or celebrated incident of feline theft. It certainly doesn't relate to sailors becoming taciturn when punished with the cat o' nine tails as some have suggested - that's pure invention. Like the blackbird that 'pecked off his nose', the phrase is just an example of the lighthearted imagery that is, or was, directed at children.
The expression sounds as though it might be old but isn't especially so. It isn't found in print until 1881, in the US illustrated paper Ballou's Monthly Magazine, Volume 53:
The demarcation of the phrase as being 'children's' suggests that it may be earlier than the 1880s. Children's language wasn't written down until it became used by adults, which may be some years after it was common parlance in the playground.
第二个解释来自
，地址是：
：
The most surprising thing about "cat got your tongue" may be that it seems to be a quite recent expression. While it certainly sounds as if it must have been dreamt up back in the Middle Ages, the earliest written example listed in the Oxford English Dictionary is from 1911. Also, there is some confusion about its origin. The Random House dictionary says it is from the mid-nineteenth Century and was used when talking to a child who refused to answer a parent's questions after doing something bad. However, other sources suggest that it comes from the English sailing ship days, and refers to the cat o' nine tails (a whip). If the captain or other officer told someone something in secrecy, he would be threatened with 'the cat' if he were to tell the others. Of course, if the others wanted to know what had been said they would say, "Tell us, or are you afraid? Has the cat got your tongue?" Other theories claim that the saying stems from a custom in the Middle East hundreds of years ago, when it was common to punish a thief by cutting off their right hand, and a liar by ripping out their tongue and then giving these severed body parts to the ruler's pet cats as part of their daily food.
关于这一问题还有其它许许多多的解释，例如以下内容来自yahoo的问答，它就提出了4个理论，但是个人并不觉得这里提供的诸多说法是可靠的，但至少这些回答它有些趣味。仅仅放在最后提供参考：Where did the phrase "cat got your tongue" come from?
Dear Lauren:We aren't sure, but we do know one thing: Curiosity killed the cat. Despite that, we dove into etymology's muddy waters to find you an answer.
As is often the case with idioms, no one's positive of the origins of "cat got your tongue." However, there's no shortage of theories. Here are a few, in no particular order...
Theory #1
The
comes from the Middle East, where as punishment, liars had their tongues ripped out and fed to the king's cats.
Theory #2
Fear of a whipping with a
, or "cat" for short, could paralyze a victim into silence.
Theory #3
The
comes from the Middle Ages when witches were greatly feared and often put to death. It was believed that if you saw a witch, her cat would somehow "steal" or control your tongue so you couldn't report the sighting.
Theory #4
This one comes from our old friend Evan Morris, the
: "There's no particular logic to 'cat got your tongue,' except that cats have served as the object of human myth and metaphor for thousands of years."
So there you have it -- sort of. This list is by no means exhaustive, and there are probably at least a half a dozen more possible explanations. Let's just leave it at
: "Like the history of the word 'cat' itself, the origins of some of these expressions are as mysterious as the Sphinx."
