Cat and Lady - 1910 |
"Servants, when desirous of hoodwinking their mistresses or each other, resorted to a curious method of speech.
They added "us," or "vus" to every word. This jargon was styled cat-latin ; as " Whenvus thevus catvus isvus outvus, thevus, micevus allvus playvus." The above will give the reader some idea of this ridiculous custom. I am told that it has not quite died out in the far west even up to this date (1898)."
Hewett 1900
How very fascinating, had never heard of cat latin before, only pig latin! Had a quick google as I was curious and it seems the latin word for Cat is Cattus, so guessing that might be where the adding -us to words comes from, very curious as to how it came about though!!
ReplyDeleteGood bit of research! Well thought of...
ReplyDeleteVeryus Fascinatingus!