Debra in Gates, North Carolina, says that her husband tries to do things right the first time because, as he puts it, he doesn’t like licking the cat over. To have to lick the cat over is to have to repeat a laborious process for a second time. It’s also often said as lick the calf over. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Lick the Cat Over”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, my name is Debra, and I live in Gates, North Carolina.
My husband, he always says, like, when he’s going to do something, like, for the first time, you don’t like to do things over. And he’d be like, sometimes he’d be like, I don’t like, let me do this right, because he don’t like licking the cat over. And he’s said it so many times. He’s from the eastern shores of Virginia. So I was wondering where did that phrase come from, or is it something that he just says, you know, because he told me that when he was growing up, like house chores and things like that, his dad would always be on him. That’s why he always tried to make it a habit of, you know, getting it right the first time because he don’t like to lick the cat over. He doesn’t want to have to redo it, right?
Yeah.
Yes.
As far as we can tell, it just has to do with, you know, that process that you see cats go through where they start with a paw, and they’re licking there, and then they’re rubbing it behind their ear, and then they’re licking their shoulder, and then they’re licking their other shoulder, and then they lick, you know, back there and down there and kind of all over the place. It’s a long process. And then if you ruffle their fur or they get a little dust on them, they start over. They start all over.
Yes.
Repetitive, huh?
It’s very repetitive and kind of meditative. I always like watching cats just do that. You know, they take their own sweet time when they do that.
Yeah, they do.
Yeah.
And then once you finally get finished, once the cat finally gets finished, you know, you don’t want to have to do it all over again. I mean, it’s sort of the same thing for people. You know, once you accomplish that task that has so many different parts, you don’t want to do it all over again. And it’s odd about this expression. It doesn’t really show up in books of idioms and phrases and things like that. But we do find it in newspapers back at least to the 1940s. I’m looking at a newspaper from Amarillo, Texas. And somebody says, you early garden planters had better take it a little slow if you don’t want to have to lick the cat over. It does pop up in some newspapers from North Carolina, which is curious. I know you said he was from Virginia, but has he lived in North Carolina a long time?
Well, I know there’s a lot of Tatums because I’m married to the Tatums. There’s a lot of Tatums in Carolina and New Jersey and New York.
Okay.
But we find it in Texas, Oklahoma, North Carolina, as far back as the mid-1940s.
Wow. Okay.
And, Debra, I think you’ve probably just helped popularize that expression with people who didn’t know it. Because it’s a wonderful one, right? It’s really picturesque.
Yeah, it is. Really, it is.
I don’t want to have to lick the cat over. Debra, thank you for your call and thanks for sharing. I really appreciate it.
Thank you, guys. I truly love you guys so very much.
Thank you.
Take care now. Call us again sometime.
Thank you.
All righty.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
