/ · 1894 Brewer’s · R · Rat (Un)
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A purse. Hence, a young boy thief is called a Raton. A sort of pun on the word rapt from the Latin rapto, to carry off forcibly. Courir le rat, to rob or break into a house at night-time.
To take a rat by the tail, or Prendre un rat par la queue, is to cut a purse. A phrase dating back to the age of Louis XIII., and inserted in Cotgrave’s Dictionary. Of course, a cutpurse would cut the purse at the string or else he would spill the contents.
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.
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