softly, softly, catchee monkey

English

Alternative forms

• softly, softly caught the monkey, softly, softly catch a monkey

Etymology

Uncertain. Commentators refer to a variety of African languages or nations, but generally lack specific detail. Benham's Book of Quotations suggests the phrase originated from Black English, but is unclear. Compare the Wolof proverb, Ndànk-ndànk, mooy jàpp golo ci ñaay (“Slowly, slowly one catches a monkey in the forest”).

Although the phrase is attested with non-standard assonant catchee mainly from the twentieth century, Eric Partridge suggests it was probably coined in the late nineteenth. Quotations from the mid-nineteenth century use catch or caught the monkey.

Phrase

softly, softly, catchee monkey

1. Proceed cautiously or gently to achieve an objective.
   • 1840, Archer Polson, James Grant, Law and Lawyers; or, Sketches and Illustrations of Legal History and Biography, London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green & Longmans, →OCLC:

     "Prudens qui patiens," was the motto of our great Coke : a motto which the negro pithily paraphrases — "Softly, softly, catch monkey."

   • 1896 March, Robert Baden-Powell, “The Native Levy in the Ashanti Expedition, 1895-96”, in Journal of the Royal United Service Institution, volume 40, London: J. J. Keliher & Co., page 305:

     It is a West Coast proverb, which says, “Softly, softly, catchee monkey."

   • 1920, John Hargrave, The Wigwam Papers and Totem Talks, London: C. Arthur Pearson, →OCLC, page 33:

     the really important part of Scouting is to become good Scouts — "wise old birds," in fact. "Softly, softly, catchee monkey!" Not by making a row, but by cunning and kindness

   • 1950, “Conference Conundrums”, in The Journal – Institute of Journalists, volume 38, page 148:

     Having failed to secure a Press Council of the sort they wanted, they are now trying, in a small way, to get something established — on the old principle of ‘Softly, softly, catchee monkey.’

2. Capture a target without startling it and causing it to run away.
   • 2013 March 31, Gina Hoisington, “The Logic of My Anger: A Sociopath's Tale of Vengeance”, in BDSM Library‎:

     Softly, softly, catchee monkey, I thought to myself....slow and sure was the way with a woman like this.

See also

• softly softly

References