The Origins of Kat Got Your Tongue

The earliest use of the phrase, Kat got your tongue is found in an American magazine in 1881. One one theory is that it stems from the medieval fear of witches and their familiar black cats. Another theory is a claim that ancient kings would cut off the tongues of liars and fed them fed the tongues to their cats. This one though, the most likely one is that it's just odd childish imagery that kids were saying in the 1880s, 1870s.