English
Proverb
curiosity killed the cat
- One should not be curious about things that can be dangerous.
Coordinate terms
Translations
undue curiosity is dangerous
- Arabic: الْفُضُولُ قَتَلَ الْقِطَّ (al-fuḍūlu qatala l-qiṭṭa)
- Armenian: հետաքրքրասիրությունը սպանեց կատվին (hetakʻrkʻrasirutʻyunə spanecʻ katvin)
- Catalan: la curiositat va matar el gat
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 好奇害死貓 / 好奇害死猫 (zh) (hàoqí hàisǐ māo)
- Czech: nebuď zvědavej, budeš brzo starej
- Danish: nysgerrighed slog smedens kat ihjel
- Dutch: nieuwsgierigheid doodde de kat (calque), de duivel heeft het vragen uitgevonden (literally “the devil invented questioning”)
- Estonian: uudishimu tappis kassi
- Finnish: uteliaisuus tappoi kissan
- French: la curiosité est un vilain défaut (fr) (literally “curiosity is a bad thing”)
- German: Neugier ist der Katze Tod
- Greek: η περιέργεια σκότωσε τη γάτα (el) (i periérgeia skótose ti gáta)
- Hebrew: הַסַּקְרָנוּת הָרְגָה אֶת הֶחָתוּל (he) (ha-sakranút hargá et he-khatúl)
- Hungarian: aki kíváncsi, hamar megöregszik (hu)
- Irish: fios a mharaigh an cat
- Italian: tanto va la gatta al lardo, che ci lascia lo zampino, la curiosità uccise il gatto, (rare) la troppa curiosità spinge l'uccello nella rete
- Macedonian: љубопитноста ја убила мачката (ljubopitnosta ja ubila mačkata)
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: nysgjerrighet drepte katten, nysgjerrig høne får enten korn eller knuff (literally “the curious chicken gets either corn or beatings”)
- Polish: ciekawy kot do studni wpadł (literally “the curious cat fell into the well”), ciekawość to pierwszy stopień do piekła (pl) (literally “curiosity is the first step to hell”)
- Portuguese: a curiosidade matou o gato
- Romanian: curioșii mor repede (literally “curious people die quickly”)
- Russian: любопы́тной Ва́рваре на база́ре нос оторва́ли (ru) (ljubopýtnoj Várvare na bazáre nos otorváli), мно́го бу́дешь знать — ско́ро соста́ришься (mnógo búdešʹ znatʹ — skóro sostárišʹsja), ме́ньше зна́ешь — кре́пче спишь (ménʹše znáješʹ — krépče spišʹ), (rare) от любопы́тства ко́шка сдо́хла (ot ljubopýtstva kóška sdóxla)
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: радо̀знало̄ст је убила мачку
- Roman: radòznalōst je ubila mačku
- Spanish: la curiosidad mató al gato (es)
- Swedish: nyfiken i en strut
- Tagalog: ang sobra-sobrang pag-usisa ay delikado (literally “too much curiosity is dangerous”)
- Turkish: fazla merak göte yarak (literally “too much curiosity [results in] a dick in the ass”) (vulgar), ya meraktan, ya yaraktan (literally “due to either the curiosity or a dick”) (vulgar)
- Welsh: busnesa a laddodd y gath
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References
- Gregory Y. Titelman (1996) Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings, →ISBN, page 48