Just to clear up that little point...

[desperance]

...the right to spoil two catskins a half is a privilege extended to pupils at Rugby School, as noted in "Tom Brown's Schooldays". A half is a half-year, a term of education; and a catskin is a top hat, which was uniform at the time. I tell myself - firmly - that it does not literally mean that the hat was covered with the skin of a cat, any more than moleskin trousers were made of the skins of moles. Or indeed any more than catgut strings were made from the guts of cats.

If I am wrong about this, I do not need to be told, okay? Let me hug my illusions. Cuddlingly. I like 'em.

And no, I'm not using a cat-icon on this post; for lo, it is nothing to do with cats. Have I not said so?

Comments

[wolfinthewood.livejournal.com]

According to Eric Partridge (Dictionary of Slang) a cat-skin was 'an inferior make of silk hat'. His only citation is Hughes, 1857 (which as you will recognise, but some readers may not, is Tom Brown's Schooldays).

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Thank you. That's what I was hoping assuming certain of. Yup...

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

That the whole universe revolves round Tom brown's Schooldays and that all dictionaries refer to it eventually?

[desperance.livejournal.com]

No, that catskin was nothing to do with skinning cats. *frowns mightily* *and refers all dictionaries to Tom Brown's Schooldays, because yes, actually*

[possumqueen.livejournal.com]

Apparently top-quality hats were beaver... mainly collected from the North American continent once the European supply was hunted to near extinction. *cough* So cat-skin would be kind of an insulting label......

Hm, tell me there's no trickle-down archaic vocabulary at work in the world to this very day! Common slang overwhelms all dictionaries, at least for a while. It travels farther and faster because of its aura of social danger. The Victorians weren't very, when you come right down to it. ;)

And not having studied the actual etymology of the words, I'm probably making up the specious connections out of prompt and circumstance. ;)

[possumqueen.livejournal.com]

^ sophistry

[wolfinthewood.livejournal.com]

Never can resist an excuse to reach for a dictionary. Or in the present instance log on to OED Online. You may be charmed (I am) to learn that Tom Brown's Schooldays provides the earliest citations for 'drop-kick', 'kick-off', 'loafing' (ppl. a), 'no side', 'pea-shooting' (n), 'right-hander' [from the epic fight with Slogger Williams], and 'tuck-shop'. Also 'Hullo' (but 'Hello' and 'Halloa' are found earlier), 'ship-wrecky' (not found elsewhere) and 'vulgus' ('In some public schools, a short set of Latin verses on a given subject').

It also provides the sole citation for the slang use of 'catskin' to mean a silk-hat.

I suspect possumqueen is right that there is a connection with the fact that top-quality hats used to be made of beaver fur (there is a reference to this as far back as the 'Prologue' to the Canterbury Tales). Later 'beaver' was slang for a silk top hat (not in OED, but see Farmer and Henley, Slang and Its Analogues (1890), s v 'beaver'). So if a quality silk hat was a 'beaver', then it made sense (in schoolboy terms) to refer to a cheap one as a 'cat-skin'.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Oh, lovely. Thank you very much.

Also, I am pleased to be able to report that I may be the last person in the world who refers to the end of a game of rugby as "no side". Which, indeed, I learned from Tom Brown and his chums. It lasted I think past WWII, but everybody these days talks about the final whistle, as if it were a bloody game of soccer... Hrumph!

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Apparently top-quality hats were beaver... mainly collected from the North American continent once the European supply was hunted to near extinction. *cough* So cat-skin would be kind of an insulting label...

See wolfinthewood's support for this suggestion, above...

[possumqueen.livejournal.com]

Oh, gosh, lucky me. I simply had some wisps of useless knowledge stored in my head, made a few spontaneous assumptions, and ran with it. In other words, I am a politician.

The hat part was all I really knew, but the "cat-skin" reference was new to me.... then with all this talk of beavers and cats I sophistried straight into speculation on the social pedigree of certain slang terms for.... female matters. *cough*

Here are reliable links about beaver hats:
http://people.ucsc.edu/~kfeinste/history.html
http://people.ucsc.edu/~kfeinste/felting.html
http://www.whiteoak.org/learning/furhat.htm

..... if someone else wants to search out the cheeky slang connection, be my guest. I'm a Yank, what the hell do I know about English?

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I simply had some wisps of useless knowledge stored in my head, made a few spontaneous assumptions, and ran with it. In other words, I am a politician.

Or, of course, a writer. *g*

[possumqueen.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry. It all makes me want to paint myself blue and rampage through the highlands nekkid. It's a far simpler and more effective protocol. Just ask the Romans.

*berserks and gets down with the sickness*

[syntinen-laulu.livejournal.com]

Sorry to butt in, so long after the fair, and sorry to bring distressing news; I have just stumbled on this thread while Googling for the reference in Tom Brown's Schooldays. Yes, those hats were made of cat fur. Expensive top hats were made of silk plush; cheap ones were made of fur felt. Nowadays fur felt for hats is made of rabbit fur (silk top hats are no longer made, alas - they are very plushy and handsome), but in the 19th century cat fur was used. In 17th to 19th century towns cat skins were always in demand, either for feltmaking or for cheap fur trimmings. If you had (or found) a dead cat you could sell its skin to a dealer; you wouldn't get much for it, maybe a couple of pennies, but it was better than nothing. Hence the proverb "more than one way to skin a cat" (don't believe anyone who tells you that's about skinning catfish! It isn't) and one you don't hear much these days, "what can you have of a cat but her skin?" meaning "you can't get more value out of anything than it intrinsically has".