Originally published August 2012. Updated November 5, 2026.
The four most popular clichés in this list are "bury the hatchet," "crocodile tears," "break the ice" and "cat got your tongue." Three have documented origins in a peace ceremony, a medieval animal myth and a Shakespeare play, while the fourth has no proven origin at all. Each phrase lost force as it spread, and each can be restored or replaced.
Quick Summary: 4 Clichés and Their Origins
| Cliché | Best-supported origin | Earliest evidence | Better option |
|---|
| Bury the hatchet | Haudenosaunee and other Native American peace ceremonies | Samuel Sewall, 1680 (describing a ceremony) | Name the dispute and the date it ended |
| Crocodile tears | Medieval belief that crocodiles weep while eating | 14th-century Mandeville travel writing | Describe the grief and who caused the harm |
| Break the ice | A figurative use older than purpose-built icebreaker ships | Merriam-Webster dates it to about 1577 | State the first question you will ask |
| Cat got your tongue | Unknown; the popular stories lack evidence | Sources cite an 1881 magazine item and a 1911 novel | Say the person has gone quiet and why it matters |
In This List
1. "Bury the Hatchet": Where Does It Come From?
"Bury the hatchet" comes from peace ceremonies among Native American nations, including the Haudenosaunee, in which weapons were buried to mark the end of a conflict. English speakers adopted the phrase from observing these ceremonies, and the figurative sense of ending a quarrel followed.
The earliest English record is a 1680 account by Samuel Sewall, a Massachusetts judge who later presided over the Salem witch trials. Sewall described Mohawk leaders and Major John Pynchon agreeing to peace and burying two axes, one for the English and one for the Mohawks. The explicit phrase "burying the hatchet" appears in print later, in Cadwallader Colden's 1747 history of the Five Nations, according to Phrasefinder.
The original act was public, witnessed and binding. Today the phrase mostly means "stop arguing," and it overclaims when used for a small workplace disagreement.
Use it only when two parties end a real, long dispute in the open. For everything else, write what actually happened, for example "the two teams agreed on a shared launch date."
2. "Crocodile Tears": Where Does It Come From?
"Crocodile tears" means false grief shown by someone who is causing the harm. The phrase comes from a medieval belief that crocodiles weep while eating their prey, and it was spread by travel writing such as the 14th-century Travels of Sir John Mandeville.
Shakespeare then fixed the image in English, using it in Henry VI, Part 2 and again in Othello. The phrase carried a precise charge: predatory dishonesty, not generic dishonesty.
Crocodilians do produce tears, which keep their eyes moist. The weeping-while-eating story was a medieval myth about remorse, not an observation of it.
Today the phrase is often watered down to "fake sadness." It still works when it matches the original target: an executive publicly mourning layoffs that the executive ordered, or a politician lamenting the effects of a bill the politician voted for.
3. "Break the Ice": Where Does It Come From?
"Break the ice" is a figurative phrase recorded in English in the 16th century, well before purpose-built icebreaker ships existed. Merriam-Webster places the first known use around 1577, and Shakespeare used it in The Taming of the Shrew, where Tranio urges Petruchio to break the ice with Katherina.
The popular story that ice-breaking ships created the phrase is only partly supported. Ships and workers did clear river and harbor ice, and that literal image likely helped the idiom spread, but the social meaning of easing a first awkward moment is recorded later still. The Oxford English Dictionary's earliest social use, according to Mental Floss, is from 1795.
Today the phrase usually means small talk at a party or meeting. The metaphor still works, but it is so common that readers skim past it.
Replace it with the specific first move: "She opened the workshop by asking everyone to name the worst press release they had ever read." That sentence does the job the cliché only gestures at.
4. "Cat Got Your Tongue?": Where Does It Come From?
"Cat got your tongue?" has no proven origin. The popular explanations, that the phrase refers to the Royal Navy's cat-o'-nine-tails whip or to blasphemers' tongues being fed to cats, have no historical evidence behind them, according to Phrasefinder.
Even the earliest date depends on the source. Grammarphobia reports that the Oxford English Dictionary's earliest citation is Henry Howard Harper's 1911 novel Bob Hardwick, while History.com cites an 1881 magazine item, which suggests the phrase is much younger than its medieval sound implies.
The meaning is clear even if the origin is not: a teasing question to someone who has gone silent. It now sounds like nursery vocabulary and is rarely used with adults in serious writing.
The lesson for writers is to be careful with any phrase that comes with a vivid origin story. Check the claim before repeating it, and if the evidence is missing, say "the origin is unknown."
How Should Writers Handle a Cliché?
A writer should handle a cliché by choosing one of three moves: restore it, replace it or cut it. Knowing the real origin makes the choice easier, but it does not make the phrase fresh.
- Restore the phrase when the original situation matches, such as "bury the hatchet" for a long public feud that ended in a signed agreement.
- Replace the phrase with the specific fact it was standing in for, such as the first question asked or the date a dispute ended.
- Cut the phrase when the sentence works without it, which is the case for most uses of "cat got your tongue."
This matters for search as well as style. AI answer engines pull from pages that state specific, checkable facts, and generic phrasing gives them little to cite. EPR's guide to writing in PR and marketing covers how this applies to press releases and bylines.
