{"id":18236,"date":"2019-08-31T12:51:39","date_gmt":"2019-08-31T12:51:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=18236"},"modified":"2019-08-31T12:51:39","modified_gmt":"2019-08-31T12:51:39","slug":"cats-and-porridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=18236","title":{"rendered":"Cats and Porridge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/images\/blog\/catporridge.gif\" style=\"float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;\" alt=\"att g\u00e5 som katten kring het gr\u00f6t\" width=\"208\" height=\"208\"><\/p>\n<p>What connection is there between cats and porridge?<\/p>\n<p>Well in Swedish, <strong>att g\u00e5 som katten kring het gr\u00f6t<\/strong> (&#8220;to walk like the cat around hot porridge&#8221;) means that you are not getting to the point, beating around the bush, stalling, avoiding talking directly about something sensitive or unpleasant, approaching something indirectly and cautiously, walking on egg shells, pussyfooting around, or wasting time.<\/p>\n<p>Some examples of how this phrase is used:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>L\u00e5t oss inte g\u00e5 som katten kring het gr\u00f6t<br \/>\n<em>Let us not beat around the bush<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Vi g\u00e5r som katten kring het gr\u00f6t, b\u00e5de politiskt och diplomatiskt sett.<br \/>\n<em>We tread on eggshells, both politically and diplomatically.<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Vi har tassat likt katten kring het gr\u00f6t i den fr\u00e5gan alltf\u00f6r l\u00e4nge.<br \/>\n<em>We have pussyfooted on that issue for far too long.<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Vi h\u00e4r har varit r\u00e4dda och g\u00e5tt som katten kring het gr\u00f6t.<br \/>\n<em>We here have been fearful and have beaten around the bush.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Source: <em><a href=\"https:\/\/en.bab.la\/dictionary\/swedish-english\/gr%C3%B6t\">bab.la<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Similar idioms involving cats and porridge are found in a number of other languages:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Czech<\/strong>: chodit kolem hork\u00e9 ka\u0161e = to walk around hot porridge<\/li>\n<li><strong>German<\/strong>: wie die Katze um den hei\u00dfen Brei herumschleichen = as the cat sneaks around the hot porridge<\/li>\n<li><strong>Finnish<\/strong>: kiert\u00e4\u00e4 kuin kissa kuumaa puuroa = to pace around hot porridge like a cat<\/li>\n<li><strong>Norwegian<\/strong>: \u00e5 g\u00e5 som katta rundt den varme grauten = to walk like a cat around hot porridge<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These are all equivalents of to beat around the bush.<\/p>\n<p>The English idiom <strong>to beat around the bush<\/strong> was first used in writing in 1572, and referred to the practise of beating bushes in order to flush out game animals [<a href=\"https:\/\/idioms.thefreedictionary.com\/beat+around+the+bush\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<h3>Some other cat-related idioms<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>It&#8217;s rain cats and dogs = It&#8217;s raining heavily<\/li>\n<li>To let the cat out of the bag = to reveal a secret<\/li>\n<li>Curiosity killed the cat<\/li>\n<li>When the cat&#8217;s away the mice will play<\/li>\n<li><strong>French<\/strong>: Avoir d\u2019autres chats \u00e0 fouetter = <em>To have other cats to whip = To have other fish to fry \/ other things to do.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>French<\/strong>: Avoir un chat dans la gorge = <em>To have a cat in the throat = To have a frog in one&#8217;s throat<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>French<\/strong>: appeler un chat un chat = <em>to call a cat a cat = to call a spade a spade = say it like it is<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>French<\/strong>: Chat \u00e9chaud\u00e9 craint l&#8217;eau froide = <em>Scalded cat fears cold water = Once bitten, twice shy<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>Spanish<\/strong>: El gato escaldado del agua fria huye = <em>The cat that has been scalded runs away from cold water = Once bitten, twice shy<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>German<\/strong>: meine Arbeit war f\u00fcr die Katz = <em>my work was for the cat = my work was a waste of time<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>German<\/strong>: das hat die Katze gefressen = <em>the cat ate it = the fairies took it<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>German<\/strong>: wenn die Katze aus dem Haus ist, tanzen die M\u00e4use (auf dem Tisch) = <em>when the cat is out of the house, the mice dance (on the table) = when the cat&#8217;s away the mice will play<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Sources: <em><a href=\"https:\/\/edl.ecml.at\/LanguageFun\/Idiomsoftheworld\/tabid\/3117\/Default.aspx\">Idioms of the world<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/dictionary.reverso.net\">Reverso<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Do you know other cat- or porridge-related idioms?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What connection is there between cats and porridge? Well in Swedish, att g\u00e5 som katten kring het gr\u00f6t (&#8220;to walk like the cat around hot porridge&#8221;) means that you are not getting to the point, beating around the bush, stalling, avoiding talking directly about something sensitive or unpleasant, approaching something indirectly and cautiously, walking on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[99,104,109,111,116,125,10,31,64,67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-czech","category-english","category-finnish","category-french","category-german","category-idioms","category-language","category-norwegian","category-spanish","category-swedish"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18236"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18259,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18236\/revisions\/18259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}