ProverbHuman Nature
English origin1546
English origin1546A cat has nine lives
Meaning: Cats (or resilient people) survive many dangerous situations.
Origin: The belief that cats survive what would kill other animals was old enough for John Heywood to write in 1546 that a woman has nine lives like a cat. In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio taunts Tybalt, the "King of Cats," by threatening to take one of his nine lives. Why nine is not recorded; Italian and Spanish give cats seven.
Equivalents in French, Spanish, Japanese, and German
French: Un chat a neuf vies (literally: A cat has nine lives)
Spanish: El gato tiene siete vidas (literally: The cat has seven lives)
Japanese: 猫に九生あり (Neko ni kyūsei ari) (literally: A cat has nine lives)
German: Eine Katze hat sieben Leben (literally: A cat has seven lives)
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