Kitten Britches
Roy from Indian River
asked about a phrase that he heard: “cat’s fur to make kitten britches.” I
didn’t have the slightest idea about its origin or meaning, so I turned to the
online bulletin board of the American Dialect Society. Garson O’Toole
graciously put me on the right track.
The Random House Mavens’
Word of the Day blog ran an
explanation in August of 1996. Basically, the phrase is a mild reproof to
someone who asks a question that ends in the preposition for, as in “what’s that for?” I suppose that the
response was irresistible to devotees of the never-end-a-sentence-with-a-preposition crowd. It probably originated in 19th
century America.
In various parts of the
country, the preposition for
sounds just like fur. So a
question ending in for/fur
invited the nonsensical “cat’s fur to make kitten britches.” Britches were
pants coming just below the knee, which, in this image, a mother cat was making
for her offspring from her own fur. Britches (alternatively spelled breeches)
also showed up in the saying,” too big for his own britches.”
The
Mavens’ Word of the Day entry
mentioned another nonsense response, one that I used as a youth. If someone
responded with the question “so?”,
the witty response was, “sew buttons.” Obviously, it was a more innocent era.
Listen to Mike’s
program in real time every Tuesday morning, 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. EST, by going to
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There is a collection of
podcasts. Go to wtcmradio.com and click on Podcasts. Scroll down The Ron Jolly Show to find the Words to the Wise audio
button.
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