Japanese

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J01

Words and Their Stories -- a program in Special English. Every people develops its own idioms -- its special way of saying things. And a story can be told about each of these special expressions. Today, we will tell you about the expression, "to play possum," meaning to deceive, to hide the truth.

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J02

That men have learned much from the behavior of animals is hardly news. As we all know, the actions of many animals, when threatened, are most interesting to watch. Especially, the smaller ones. The monkey runs for the trees; the turtle retreats into its shell; the armadillo rolls up into a ball. And the fox, the smartest of small creatures, can get lost. Thus, the expression, "to outfox somebody." The ostrich, however, which is neither small, nor smart, acts stupidly when threatened -- it buries its head in the sand. But the opossum, or possum as it is often called, has its own special defense -- it turns over and plays dead in a manner of speaking. The possum does this in the belief that its hunter is not interested in a dead possum, but only in a live one. This, however, is not always true as many a possum has discovered.

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J03

The possum was one of the first wild animals the American colonists in Virginia got to know. They did not know what to call this small animal and asked the Indians for its name. The colonists had some difficulty in pronouncing the Indian word and came up with "opossum," which then became "possum." The Indians gave it their name because of the creature's color. The Indian word meant "white animal" although most possums are grayish in color. The early colonists quickly became interested in the imaginative behavior of the possum when it was attacked. The creature put on a good show, acting as if it were dead. It fell to the ground and shut its eyes, sticking its tongue out of a half-opened mouth. The possum continued to play dead even while being kicked or beaten or shaken by a dog. Once the danger passed, up he jumped and ran off, to go through the same act somewhere else, some other day.

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J04

And so was born the saying, "to play possum," although it took some time to creep into the language. Not until the early 1820's did the expression find its way into print with these words: "One who counterfeits sickness, or dissembles strongly for a particular purpose, is said to be possuming . . . . "

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J05

Some years later, in 1855, these words appeared in print: "I will play possum with these folks and take a rise out of them that will astonish their weak nerves."

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J06

In time, the expression found its way into politics as so many colorful American sayings do. By the very nature of their trade, politicians often find that the only way to escape a tight or critical situation is to play possum: Acting as if they are going one way, whereas really they mean to go in the opposite direction.

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J07

It is always possum-time in politics, but more so when the time arrives to think of choosing party nominees for the Presidency. These are days that test a politician -- how good is he at playing possum? Everybody knows he is a candidate -- how can he hide the fact? Of course by rolling over and playing dead, showing no interest whatsoever in the great prize while the other candidates go by and disappear. One traditional way to do this is by issuing statements: "I am not a candidate," "I will not run," "I do not seek the office," etc., etc. Even if nobody believes the accuracy of the statements, many enjoy the show. It is a good one. "Playing possum" always is.

Voice of America

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