Where did the phrase "RATS!!!" come from?

Answer 1

Ancient Romans did not generally differentiate between rats and mice, instead referring to the former as Mus Maximus (big mouse) and the latter as Mus Minimus (little mouse).

In Imperial Chinese culture, the rat (sometimes referred to as a mouse) is the first of the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac. People born in this year are expected to possess qualities associated with rats. These include creativity, honesty, generosity, ambition, a quick temper and wastefulness. "Rats" (i.e. people born in a year of the rat) are said to get along well with "monkeys" and "dragons," and to get along poorly with "horses."


Ganesh riding on his mouse. Note the flowers offered by the devotees. A sculpture at the Vaidyeshwara temple at Talakkadu, Karnataka, IndiaIn India in the northwestern city of Deshnoke, the Karni Mata Temple, the rats are held to be destined for reincarnation as Sadhus, Hindu holy men. The attending priests feed milk and grain, of which the pilgrims also partake, to the animals. Eating food that has been touched by the animals is considered a blessing. In Hindu mythology, a rat is the vehicle of Ganesha. Western associations with the rat are generally negative. For instance, "Rats!" is used as a substitute for various vulgar interjections. These associations do not draw, per se, from any biological or behavioral trait of the rat, but possibly from the association of rats (and fleas) with the 14th-century medieval plague called the Black Death. Rats are seen as vicious, unclean, parasitic animals that steal food and spread disease. While undomesticated rats, dogs, and cats may all be pests in urban areas, in Western counties poisoning rats is commonly accepted, while doing the same to feral dogs and cats would be an unpopular solution in the view of many people. Mutant, man-eating rats are the monsters in James Herbert's horror novel The Rats and its sequels. A phobia of rats is used as a torture device in the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell'. Rats are the most common enemy in Brian Jacques's Redwall series of anthropomorphic fantasy novels. There are obvious exceptions; for example, the characters of Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, the television series Ratz and Terry Pratchett's The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents. Describing a person as "rat-like" usually implies he is unattractive and suspicious. In contrast, mice are stereotyped as cute and bourgeois.

On the Isle of Man (British Protectorate) there is a taboo against the word "rat." See longtail for more information.

Rat is also a term (noun and verb) in criminal (often Mafia) slang for a criminal informant.

Rats are often used in destructive scientific experiments; many animal rights activists allege that treatment of rats in this context is cruel. The term "lab rat" is therefore sometimes used, like guinea pig, to describe a person who is manipulated in a social experiment.

Answer 2

I believe rats, a known prey of snakes, always preceed snakes wherever they go.

So, naturally, this phrase stems from the ancient time in which it was often heard uttered:

"RATS ON A PLANE!!!"


{This was, as most things are, abbreviated over time.}

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'Hope I could help.

Answer 3

It is actually a corruption of the ancient Latin terms (Democ and rats) for a group of losers who can't win even if an opposing group is vastly unpopular.

Answer 4

MICE: watching the cheese disappear by long tailed rats

Answer 5

It is an abbreviated version of "you dirty rats" and originated in the twenties

Answer 6

I think it was the 3 blind mice that started it.
They smelled something funny and yelled "RATS"!!!
It caught on..

Answer 7

A Big Mouse.

Answer 8

Peanuts - The comic strip.

Answer 9

seeing Rats ?????

Answer 10

It's what kids said when they found out that they couldn't say ****.