You can’t swing a cat on the net without finding someone using this phrase but I am hard pressed to find an explanation of it’s origins.
Any ideas?
I see to recall it appears in one of Mark Twain’s works. Or maybe not.
A related expression appears in Tom Sawyer, something about trading for a dead cat and a string to swing it on.
from word-detective
Trivia: Oddly enough, using the “Search inside this book” feature at Amazon, the actual quote seems to be: “Johnny Miller bought in for a dead rat and a string to swing it with”
Of course, there’s the dead cat version, which goes something like this- “You can’t swing a dead cat in Minnesota without hitting a Johnson.” You can substitute anything that is very very common in a particular area.
Or, since our last name is Johnson, we prefer “You can’t swing your johnson without hitting a dead cat!”
It’s part of the “you can’t verb a noun without verbing a noun” family. I’ve heard “throw a rock” more than this colorful variant, but it’s probably due to the cited Clemens usage.
Thanks. 
I thought it was you can’t swing your johnson without hitting… Damn, sorry about misquoting Train, thanks for the correction.
http://www3.telus.net/dancinpete/thoughts/Swing%20Dancin.html
not really fighting ignorance, but at least fighting boredom.
I realize that this is GQ, and here I come with no cites but as the phrase was originally explained to me (by a Texan) when I first heard it, the usage was much more specific.
It was basically along the lines of: “If you’re going to swing a cat, be careful you don’t hit one.”
It was meant to draw attention to the possibility that someone to whom certain negative comments would apply might overhear such comments from your own conversation.
e.g. You are a hateful homophobe and are having a private conversation with your hateful homophobe friends and you say, “Those damn faggots, why are they so gay!” But, although your conversation is private, you are in a public place surrounded by people, some of whom could by gay. Your comment about gay people is the cat being swung a gay person within earshot is the cat being hit. Therefore, if you’re going to swing a cat be careful you don’t hit one QED.
Pretty complicated to be sure, but Texans are quite colorful in their use of language (note: it was one individual Texan who shared this info with me, I can not suggest that other texans are familiar with this use of the phrase).
Again, I have no cite so I’ll be interested to hear if anyone else is familiar with thiis usage.
I could have sworn Cecil did a column on this, but I can’t locate it.
Hey, maybe it was coined by Miles Davis?
For petes sake!
Can we have ONE thread that doesn’t include some manner of hateful homophobe or pro gay subliminal message in it?
How the hell do you in ANY way equate swinging a cat, and possible etymology, with some “hatefull homophobe” mention?
SHEESH :wally
Sorry didn’t mean to hijack!
Yeah you loving homolover!
[QUOTE=Craneop2How the hell do you in ANY way equate swinging a cat, and possible etymology, with some “hatefull homophobe” mention?[/QUOTE]
Full size tom , three feet from tail end to head
Swinging said feline in a three sixty degree radius will give you about 12 square feet of room, in which possible persons listening in on a conversation , may hear any references to the aforementioned “hateful homophobe mention”
Basically if anyone is gonna have a colorful conversation , beware who is standing near you.
Declan
[QUOTE=Craneop2]
For petes sake!
Can we have ONE thread that doesn’t include some manner of hateful homophobe or pro gay subliminal message in it?
How the hell do you in ANY way equate swinging a cat, and possible etymology, with some “hatefull homophobe” mention?
SHEESH :wally QUOTE]
There is no direct connection at all. I don’t believe I suggested any direct connection- Declan understood without any trouble. I could just as easily have said:
“you say, ‘People who wear flannel underwear are stupid!’ But, although your conversation is private, you are in a public place surrounded by people, some of whom could be wearing flannel underwear.”
In this case the comment about flannel underwear is the cat being swung, a person within earshot who is wearing flannel underwear is the cat being hit. If I realize that someone nearby might be wearing flannel underwear I might admonish that there is “not enough room to swing a cat.”
The reason I didn’t use the flannel underwear example is because it is a silly example. The phrase as I’ve heard it used specifically applies to speech that could be offensive, combative, or hurtful. An anti-gay comment seemed a clear enough example, as would a racist comment, an anti-Democrat comment, an anti-Republican comment, an anti-Christian comment, an anti-Semitic comment, blah, blah, blah.
Craneop2, if you feel I was trying to brainwash you, subvert you, undermine your way of life, or tear away at the fabric of society- I sincerely apologize. That was not my intention.
To swing a cat has NOTHING to do with tom sawyer, or mark twain. in the story, tom gets traded a “tresure trove” of items, 2 of them being a dead RAT with a string to “SWING” it with, and a KITTEN with only one eye, no cat swinging guys sorry, almost lost a bet becouse you “DOPES” have so many forum posts claiming its a cat… HAD TO LOOK UP THE DAM BOOK MYSELF TO GET THE RIGHT ANSWER.
Ah, good, it only took 6 years to get to the bottom of that one.
Welcome to the Boards. You could have saved yourself the trouble by reading post #5, where one of our members searched the book on Amazon and found what you just said.
Of course, this thread was over about six years ago. Since you haven’t added any new information, I’ll close this one as a Zombie thread.
samclem Moderator, General Questions