Origin Stories: Curiosity Killed The Cat

No cats were harmed in the taking of this picture.

As both a curious person and a cat lover, it’s no surprise that I’ve heard the phrase “curiosity killed the cat” more times than I can count. Yet, those words didn’t stop me from wondering about the history of the phrase and researching where exactly it came from.

Surprisingly, curiosity was not the initial harbinger of the cat’s demise. Instead, the phrase was first recorded in 1598 as “Care’ll kill a cat” by English playwright Ben Jonson in his play Every Man in His Humour. In this context, “care” means worry or sorrow—something quite different from curiosity. The original text said: “Helter skelter, hang sorrow, care’ll kill a Cat, up-tails all, and a Louse for the Hangman.”

William Shakespeare, who was believed to have performed in Jonson’s play, repeated the phrase in his own play Much Ado About Nothing in circa 1600. In the late 1800s, “care” was still reportedly killing the cat in Ebenezer Cobham Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. However, around the same time, the phrase started to change. Different sources point to different initial publications, but it’s likely that the first printing of “Curiosity killed the cat” was Irish in origin with the most popular instance being an Irish newspaper. 

Thus “curiosity” quickly replaced “care” in our usage of the phrase, and people far and wide continued a long-standing debate over whether or not an inquisitive nature was something to encourage. Such was exemplified by the addition of “But satisfaction brought it back” to the phrase in a 1912 Pennsylvania newspaper, which would go on to be repeated in more newspapers, stories, and music. This is the phrase I always reference when the topic comes up, as I’ve always stood firmly on the side of encouraging curiosity. Now, I know that curiosity was never the main culprit.