curiosity killed the cat

English

A curious cat exploring the inside of a domestic appliance.

Alternative forms

• care killed the cat

Proverb

curiosity killed the cat

1. One should not be curious about things that can be dangerous.

Coordinate terms

• nine lives

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

References

• Gregory Y. Titelman (1996) Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings, →ISBN, page 48