Conversation

Notices

1. Embed this notice
   GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) (greenskyoverme@ohai.social)'s status on Saturday, 06-Jul-2024 17:16:03 JST GreenSkyOverMe (Monika)

   It’s kind of clear why in German cats have seven lives, considering that seven is a magic number in all kinds of fairy tales, etc.But how did cats get nine lives in English? What is special about nine?

   I wonder if there are any languages where it’s 10.

   • Embed this notice
     ScholaVetus (scholavetus@social.tchncs.de)'s status on Saturday, 06-Jul-2024 20:11:02 JST ScholaVetus

     in reply to

     @GreenSkyOverMe
     "In German folklore specifically, it’s said that cats were granted seven lives by the devil, with God then granting two more for a total of nine lives as a reward for the felines’ purring and affection."
     https://catloverhub.org/where-does-the-expression-cats-have-9-lives-come-from/#Spread_to_Europe

     🤷♂️

   • Embed this notice
     ScholaVetus (scholavetus@social.tchncs.de)'s status on Saturday, 06-Jul-2024 20:11:04 JST ScholaVetus

     in reply to

     @GreenSkyOverMe Once it was 9 in Europe too.
     The Christians reduced it to seven.
     There's an article, unfortunately in German only:
     https://www.wmn.de/lifestyle/haustiere/wie-viele-leben-katze-b-f-id422909

     GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) (greenskyoverme@ohai.social)'s status on Saturday, 06-Jul-2024 20:11:41 JST GreenSkyOverMe (Monika)

     in reply to

     • ScholaVetus

     @ScholaVetus Fascinating!

   • Embed this notice
     Klaus Stein (lapizistik@social.tchncs.de)'s status on Saturday, 06-Jul-2024 20:12:08 JST Klaus Stein

     in reply to

     As we all know cats were Gods in ancient Egypt. As this did not work out with the upcoming monotheism in Mesopotamia they got reduced from immortal to six lives. But on their way north towards Europe life got rougher so they gained a seventh life to compensate for that. And finally coming across the channel to work with the witches (and Shakespeare) they upgraded to nine lifes to compensate for the additional danger.

     Cats are still Gods.

     /cc @GreenSkyOverMe

   • Embed this notice
     sprouting Ske-lil-ton 🌱 (larymir@chaos.social)'s status on Saturday, 06-Jul-2024 20:12:29 JST sprouting Ske-lil-ton 🌱

     in reply to

     @GreenSkyOverMe oh, I somehow never really noticed that English cats have more lives
     It thinks it's the same with expressions about being in love/euphoric: 'auf Wolke 7' ("on cloud 7") in German vs 'on cloud 9' in English

   • Embed this notice
     GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) (greenskyoverme@ohai.social)'s status on Saturday, 06-Jul-2024 20:12:46 JST GreenSkyOverMe (Monika)

     in reply to

     • sprouting Ske-lil-ton 🌱

     @Larymir It’s really cloud 9 in English? 🙀

   • Embed this notice
     ivanhoe (ivanhoe@social.tchncs.de)'s status on Saturday, 06-Jul-2024 21:41:26 JST ivanhoe

     in reply to

     @GreenSkyOverMe
     German cats are more efficient, they only need 7 lives. 😛