Thanks, all, for the help. There are three prevailing definitions:
1. Supposedly anyone from Mississippi knows that catfish must be
skinned before they are eaten. The expression has been claimed to refer
to skinning catfish. This is according to a Dear Abby column sent me by
Kent Olson.
2. OED and other dictionaries define it as a gymnastics move where one
puts her feet through her arms while hanging from a parallel bar. A
number of people pointed me to this definition. This doesn't exactly
explain where the expression came from, however. Funk postulates that
someone watched another do this activity and observed that it looked
like an animal being skinned (?!). I don't know.
3. A third is the most far-fetched. This came off of Westlaw and I
don't think that I'm supposed to say who supplied it. But thanks. This
is from The Patriot Ledger, Qunicy MA, July 17, 1995: "An old British
expression advised that "There's more than one way of killing a cat than
choking it with cream." This implied that a method of doing something
was rather foolish, since cats like cream and wouldn't be able to choke
to death on it. But the saying changed to "There's more than one way to
skin a cat," and gradually took on its present meaning -- that there are
more ways tha one of accomplishing something."
So far, I like the catfish definition best.
Back to work!
Rich
-- Richard A. Leiter Director, Associate Professor Allen Mercer Daniel Law Library Howard University School of Law 202-806-8045
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Nov 14 2007 - 20:49:35 PST