Why do they call it "cat calls and wolf whistles"?Why do we refer to them this way? Where did it all begin?
94824
patzky99 wrote:\n\ni had read an earlier answer about how we use descriptions of animals' behavior to apply to humans. i'll check back and see if i can find it...\n\nwell of course i can't now. if i recall the gist of it was that we lump some of our 'worst' behaviors along with animals... so you get a 'wolf whistle', or a person or a movie is a 'real dog', or someone is 'crazy like a fox'. some positive behaviors can be ascribed too, 'proud as a peacock' or 'busy as a bee'. perhaps these phrases are just an extension of the days when we assigned human characteristics to the animal world.\n\nwho was that guy who was 'acting like a loon'?  thanks for the 2nd chance :)
567161
Long ago silver shred and the other barkmaskers had to deal with this. The legend has long since faded from the public consciousness so it is understandable that no one is alarmed at your cry. Forthwiththerefore some may task monkey this to be a falsicitude permutation of forlorn inquisitional parlayance. Nothing could be further from the truth. Oftenstance such thereothers are formed albeying but only when ditheryon and smittenherzens will it be proved. Only time will tell whether such absternasting is to become furthongin or not.
658632
It is so wonderfully humbling on this site when anyone asks,\n\n"How about Jane .."\n"How about Richard .."\n"How about Kevin .." \n\n.. and the general chorus responds with a resounding and almost deafening, "Who?"\n\n :-)\n\nAs for Mensa disavowing me .. given the odd fascination and statistically significant interest that a majority of Mensans have in cats, I think that I'm probably safe from any shunning.\n\nAnd for those who happen to read this question, I challenge you to read through MojoMan's list of questions without laughing right out loud!\n\nhttp://answers.yahoo.com/my/profile?show=AA11098360&link=question&more=y
479382
Sorry, I couldn't find the meaning anywhere but I guess it's an abbreviation of some sort.\nSome 5-6 years ago there were these really stupid toys called Furby and they made a sound just like that "wurrrrrrv". It's also like the sound a cat makes when you stroke her chin.
225140
I don't know if there's much etymology of the phrase, but here's an article about it which puts forth some interesting possibilities of the origin.\n\nQuote from the site:\n\n"Some linguists and historians think the expression must have been well known during the war years, citing a story about General Eisenhower's dog. The story goes that the dog (Felix) urinated on a map and the officers joked that the enemy was "pissed off." (Leonard Mosely, Marshall, 1982)."
196104
That's a good question.  I've wondered that myself.  Many of them DO speak with that high-pitched, nasally voice that most of us have tried to mimic at some point in our lives.
892092
I think you are right. There is so much we don,t know, and a lot of people don't care. My partner was never in to cats, as I was, but after living with them now for years, he has observed a lot about their communication behaviour. Again, the dummies don,t notice or care.We have had an atrocious record with animals and I don't think we care enough to find out more about them. Glad you're a thinker! :)
1005670
Isn't it curious that our understanding of good and bad are meant to originate in Adam and Eve's great 'sin'? That the 'sin' they committed was wanting to learn about their surroundings instead of just blindly saying 'my Father told me not to touch it, so ı won't touch it'?\n\nIn normal life, we call that growing up. We call it learning for yourself. And it's humanity's greatest single trait.\n\nIf it was the devil, in the form of a snake, that convinced Adam and Eve to open their eyes and question their surroundings, and if it was God who arbitrarily said 'look but don't touch', here is my question:\n\nWhich one of them should we give praise to?
136854
Using Gay for Homosexual has been traced as early as the 1920s, possibly earlier. Some of the sites below give these summaries:\n\nLighter also indirectly cites an 1868 song by female impersonator Will S. Hays titled, Gay Young Clerk in the Dry Goods Store. The lyrics do not explicitly link the word with homosexuality, but they can be interpreted that way, especially if sung by a man in drag. \n\nThe most likely explanation [for the usage meaning homosexual] is that it derives from gaycat or geycat, a slang term for a tramp or hobo who is new to the road. Gaycats were commonly in the company of older tramps, implying a homosexual relationship. The term, according to Lighter, dates to at least the 1890s. Gaycats were employed as lookouts while other hoboes committed crimes. The OED2 cites the 1935 Underworld & Prison Slang by N. Ersine as defining geycat as a homosexual boy. The origin of gaycat is unknown. Green, however, says a gay cat was a tramp who offered sexual services to women.\n\nRawson ["Wicked Words"] notes a male prostitute using gay in reference to male homosexuals (but also to female prostitutes) in London's notorious Cleveland Street Scandal of 1889.\n\n\nThe term Gay did not cross over into usage by the general heterosexual population until the 1960's/early 70's.
682769
The word MUAH, does not stand for anything. People write it because it's the onomatopeyic sound for a kiss. As "meow" is the onomatopeyic sound for the cat.
922988
Definitely vocal cords evolved first.  They may have been primitive ones that allowed for people to only be named things like Ugh, but definitely the ability to produce specific, repeated sounds came before those sounds meant anything.
186653
I do know a bit about it.  My friends and I have studied the paranormal for a while.  Electronic Voice Phenomenon, more commonly called EVP, is a paranormal phenomenon in which you hear a voice of someone who wasn't there during the time a recording was made.  Many people say it's proof of an afterlife or spirits.  There are a wide variety of opinions on the issue and many frauds.  Occassionally it can the wind or something else in the back ground making something a noise, and people want it to be something other than what it actually was.  Now I am sure that there are a few in which something is talking that wasn't there, but many times people make fakes.  Try doing a search on ghosts or the paranormal pretty much any website you pull up will have stuff on EVPs.
272447
They do this for many reasons, sometimes it is out of boredom, or there uncomfortable for some reason or trying to get attention, or have you noticed they howl alot when a firetruck or ambulance goes by, they howl because they don't like certain noises and they also howl as language to other dogs....
383253
The term, which has been around since the 18th century, is of unknown origin but there are several theories floating about, none of which has anything to do with thatched roofs!\n\nRain cats and dogs: If the rain is teeming down the it's said to be raining cats and dogs. This seems to be an odd way of describing weather. The expression first appeared in print in 1653.("It shall raine.....dogs and polecats").\nThere are three possible origins, one of which goes back to Norse times. In old Norse weather lore the cat was related to rain and the dog to the wind. If this were the origin then it is likely that the words would have appeared in print before 1653.\n\nThe second suggestion puts the basis in the Greek word Catadupa, "cataract" or "waterfall".\n\nThe final idea suggests that the drainage of medieval streets was so poor that cats and dogs frequently drowned during a heavy downpour. Swift's "Description of a City Shower" (1710) gives a good idea of what it was like. It's worth repeating.
6498
ummm...they come from damnation which is a synonym for condemnation.  to damn is to condemn.  people use it but don't really know what it means.  when they say it, they're actually condemning the person to hell, or in the case of "goddamn" asking God to sentence the person to hell.  it truly is a curse on someone.\n\ni'm not sure when it was first used, but it would have started as a regular word used as "to condemn".  most likely, it was a religiously-affiliated word considering its topic of hell and God.
177857
*Wincing a bit at this and shaking my shaggy skull* KK Let's start with they are two seperate species all together...\nThe canid family consists of thirty-five living species. Eight of these species inhabit North America. These North American species include gray wolves, red wolves, coyotes, red foxes, gray foxes, kit foxes, swift foxes and arctic foxes. The eight species may be organized in three general categories: wolves, coyotes and foxes.\nWolves are the largest members of the canid family. This is the species from which our pet dogs were domesticated. Wolves were once the most widely distributed wild mammals. They inhabited most of the available land in the northern hemisphere. Due to the destruction of their habitat and persecution by humans, they now occupy only about two-thirds of their former range worldwide, and only about 3 percent of the continental 48 United States. Many people have used the terms "brush wolves" or "prairie wolves" when referring to coyotes. Coyotes, however, are not wolves. Coyotes and wolves are in the same family (Canidae) and genus (Canis), but are separate species, just as foxes and wolves are separate species.\nCoyotes are smaller than most mature wolves. Resilient animals, they have higher population numbers and inhabit a much larger range than do wolves. Coyotes are able to adapt to change and have a strong tolerance for human encroachment. Like wolves, coyotes have been persecuted because of their predatory nature. They are still trapped and killed in predator control programs throughout North America.\nhttp://www.wolf.org/wolves/learn/intermed/inter_sci/canid_na.asp
259721
Why does anyone call other people anything?  For some, it's a term of endearment.  For others it's meant as an insult.  It all depends on the context and the tone of voice.