Why do we say "Curiosity Killed the Cat"?

Meaning:

If you delve into something you shouldn’t, you may discover something you don’t like; being too nosy can get you into trouble.

Background:

This is such a common phrase that one might think it originated in the days of Aesop. I, for one, can certainly imagine a fable depicting an unfortunate feline who’d gotten itself into a jam through its inquisitiveness. The saying isn’t quite as old as that, however, and isn’t meant to be taken literally.

The original idiom was “care killed the cat,” and meant that excessive worry could be harmful. The first time the phrase is seen in print comes from a line in the play Every Man in His Humour by Ben Jonson: “Helter skelter, hang sorrow, care’ll kill a cat, up-tails all, and a louse for the hangman.” According to Phrases.org.uk, “The play was one of the Tudor humours comedies, in which each major character is assigned a particular ‘humour’ or trait. The play is thought to have been performed in 1598 by The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, a troupe of actors including William Shakespeare and William Kempe.” The website goes on to report that Shakespeare stole the line for his own work; it shows up in Much Ado About Nothing, penned just one year later.

Now, why a cat should be more affected by apprehension than any other animal is a mystery. The later saying, “Curiosity killed the cat,” at least makes a bit more sense, relying on a cat’s penchant for investigation.

No one is sure exactly when or why “curiosity” began to replace “care.” Interestingliterature.com indicates the earliest print version seems to be from the book A handbook of proverbs : English, Scottish, Irish, American, Shaksperean, and scriptural : and family mottoes, with the names of the families by whom they are adopted. Written by James Allan Mair and published in 1873, the text includes the phrase “curiosity killed the cat” with a letter “I” after it — meaning it was a well established idiom by the time it was included in the book, and the author, at least, thought it was Irish in origin.

The saying became quite popular in the United States in the early 20th century, and some speculate that it was introduced by Irish immigrants. American writer O. Henry used the idiom in his 1909 short story "Schools and Schools." Some mistakenly attribute it to Eugene O'Neill, but while he did use it in his play Diff’rent, that work didn’t premiere until 1920.

Interestingly, by 1912, a second sentence had been added to the phrase. A Pennsylvania newspaper, The Titusville Herald, printed it as “Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.” The second part of the saying is meant to say that although someone may have been investigating something that could be harmful to them, a certain amount of satisfaction is at least obtained by knowing the answer to the question they had in the first place. Although not nearly as common as the original, this longer saying remains popular; Stephen King cited the proverb in at least nine of his books.

“Curiosity killed the cat” is very commonly used today — particularly when chiding youngsters about prying into something that’s none of their business.

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