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The Cheshire Cat ( or ) is a fictional cat popularised by Lewis Carroll in ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' and known for its distinctive mischievous grin. While most often celebrated in "Alice"-related contexts, the Cheshire Cat predates the 1866 novel and has transcended the context of literature and become enmeshed in popular culture, appearing in various forms of media, from political cartoons to television, as well as cross-disciplinary studies, from business to science. One of its distinguishing features is that from time to time its body disappears, the last thing visible being its iconic grin. ==Origins== There are numerous theories about the origins of the phrase "Grinning like a Cheshire Cat" in English history. * A possible origin of the phrase is one favoured by the people of Cheshire, a county in England which boasts numerous dairy farms; hence the cats grin because of the abundance of milk and cream. * According to ''Brewer's Dictionary'', "The phrase has never been satisfactorily accounted for, but it has been said that cheese was formerly sold in Cheshire moulded like a cat that looked as though it was grinning".〔As stated in Martin Gardner's ''Annotated Alice''〕 The cheese was cut from the tail end, so that the last part eaten was the head of the smiling cat. * In 1853, Samuel Maunder explained: * Its first appearance in literature was in the 18th century. ''A classical dictionary of the vulgar tongue'' (1788) by Francis Grose (The Second Edition, Corrected and Enlarged, London) contains the following entry: "CHESHIRE CAT. He grins like a Cheshire cat; said of any one who shows his teeth and gums in laughing." * The phrase appears again in print in John Wolcot's pseudonymous Peter Pindar's ''Pair of Lyric Epistles'' (1792): "Lo, like a Cheshire cat our court will grin." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cheshire Cat」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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