Why do we refer to a draw in tic-tac-toe as a cat’s game? Throughout the history of the game, cats have been associated with it. In some Spanish-speaking countries, for example, it’s known as gato, or “cat.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Cat’s Game”
We had a cute email from Timothy Riggs.
He lives in Bainbridge Island, Washington, and he’s five years old, Grant.
And he says, “My mom and I were playing tic-tac-toe, and we played a game where nobody won. We call that a cat’s game. But why? My mom says you know a lot about words, so I decided to ask you. So why do we call a draw in tic-tac-toe a cat’s game? Do you know that term, Martha?”
“A cat’s game? I never used it, no.”
“Yeah, we always just called it a draw. Some people call it a tie or a scratch.”
“Yeah, but why a cat? Did a cat make off with it?”
“We don’t really know, but what we do know is that throughout the history of this game, both in English and in Spanish, cats have been associated with it. For example, the game is sometimes called gato or juego de gato in the Spanish-speaking countries. It has a lot of other names. And it also has a lot of other names in English as well. One of them, turns out, in the UK, it used to be called Kit Kat Canio. Exactly the same game. We’re talking about the game with two vertical lines, two horizontal lines, nine squares, X’s and O’s. Try to get three in a row, right?”
“So it’s got the name cat in it.”
“Yeah. Kit Kat Canio.”
“But it’s more than that. Sometimes the tie game is also called the cat’s tail or just the cat. And it turns out that sometimes some people who play this game, when there’s a draw or a tie, they’ll say, ‘That’s a cat’s game. That’s one for the cat. This goes to the cat. The cat gets it.’ I’m always imagining some little warm kitty cat sitting there watching the game. Just cats do. Just observing the scene from the highest perch that they can find. But it’s really interesting that again and again we find cats associated with this game.”
“So, Timothy, we don’t really know why they’re associated, but we do know that it goes far beyond just this one slang name for the tie.”
“Okay. So, Timothy, it’s a really good question. We’ll keep looking to this. If we find out more about why a tie in tic-tac-toe is called a cat’s game, we’ll let you know. If you have a question about language, email us, words@waywordradio.org, or call us, 877-929-9673.”
