Wildcat: Is It a Fast Car or False Money?

wildcat.

Humans have always depended on animals. From the beginning of human history, wild animals provided food, clothing and sometimes medicine.

Many companies use animals to make us want to buy their goods. Automobile companies, for example, love to show fast horses when they are trying to sell their cars. They also name their cars for other fast powerful animals.

When Americans say wildcat, they usually mean a lynx, an ocelot or a bobcat. All these cats attack quickly and fiercely. So wildcats represent something fast and fierce.

as fast as a wildcat. Or, what better way is there to sell gasoline than to say that using it is like putting a tiger in your tank.

wildcat congressmen went home. It said they were unable to face the responsibility of having involved their country in an unnecessary war.

Some banks, however, did not have enough gold to support all the paper money they offered. So the money had little or no value. It was called a wildcat bill or a wildcat bank note. The banks who offered this money were called wildcat banks.

Wildcat was used in another way in the eighteen hundreds. It was used for an oil well or gold mine that had almost no oil or gold in it. Dishonest developers would buy such property. Then they would sell it and leave town with the money. The buyers were left with worthless holes in the ground. Today, wildcat oil wells are in areas that are not known to have oil.

wildcat strike. That is a strike called without official approval by a union. During World War Two, an American publication accused wildcat strikers of slowing government production.

This VOA Special English program, Words and Their Wtories, was written by Jeri Watson. I'm Warren Scheer.