Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune wrote this column about some of the euphemisms we use. One thing he points out is that "rats!" is so disconnected from its original that it's hard to know where it came from. My first thought was to check with Quinion, but it's not there. Does anyone know what that original connection was?

Other than Etymology Online (under the entry rat) which says American in origin and gives a first citation of 1886. I can find no discussion of its origin online. People do wonder. It's probably from the word rat, the rodent, and it is mildly pejorative, cf. [i[crap[/i] as an interjection.

I just checked Wordorigins and it's not there either. I remember Charles Shultz putting the word in Charlie Brown's mouth a lot.

I'm not even sure it's a euphemism. It's more a mild oath. Didn't the Peanuts characters say drat more than rats?

quote:

Didn't the Peanuts characters say drat more than rats?

I don't remember. It'll take a lot of heavy reading to find out!