What Is The Latin Word For Cat

From German hangovers to Iraqi silks, the English language language loves its cats.

It'due south International Cat Day, founded, obviously, in 2002 past the International Fund for Animate being Welfare. Then, take a intermission from cat pics and vids online today and savour some cat-themed etymologies. Catymologies? Yeah, no, yes…I think I have to.

Curiosity may take killed the cat, but I'm pretty etymology never did. (Pixabay)

1. Cat

Like the species it names, the word true cat has proven remarkably successful. Information technology comes from the Old English cat, which the Oxford English language Dictionary (OED) attests every bit early every bit 800. The form is found across European languages: Consider the High german Katze, French conversation, Irish gaelic cat, and Russian kot, to highlight a few examples. Latin had, yeah, cattus and Byzantine Greek katta. The widespread use of the form leads some etymologists to suggest an Afro-Asiatic origin, pointing to the Nubian kadis and Berber kaddiska.

2. Kitten

Latin's cattus became French'south chat, taking a diminutive form of chaton. An Old French variant was chitoun, which English took up in the 14th century as kitoun, now kitten.

three. Feline

The regular Latin word for cat was feles, hence the scientific proper name for the domestic cat, Felis catus—and with some additional "happy" wordplay, Felix the Cat. The origin of Latin'southward feles is only unknown, perhaps non unlike its English language counterpart, dog.

iv. Catnip

Catnip, first instanced in 1789, is an American English language variant of catmint, an herb named for its appeal to cats. The nip in catnip—for all the associations with nibbles and bites that probably reinforced the give-and-take—actually comes from nep, shortened from nepte, an Old English proper noun for the plant. Nepte, in plough, derives from nepeta, the Latin name for the family of catmints—which explains the scientific name for catnip, Nepeta cataria.

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA — Both humans and cats like their herb. Catnip flowers (Wikimedia Eatables).

five. Caterpillar

Some call up the name for this baby butterfly comes from the Onetime French chatepelose, literally "hairy cat." The first part, chat, means "cat," as we've seen. The second, pelose, is from the Latin pilosus, "hairy, shaggy." (Pilus is a Latin discussion for hair and shows upwardly in words like depilatory, literally to "remove hair".)

The hungry, hungry "hairy cat" (Pixabay).

6. Caterwaul

To caterwaul is to waul similar a cater, or "cry like a cat," with earlier forms of the word found in the tardily 14th century and specifically naming the mewing of rutting cats. The cater appears to stand for to the Dutch cater, "tomcat," and the waul is probably ultimately imitative in origin, though are some interesting suggestions about a Germanic root for "anger."

seven. Katzenjammer

Speaking of wailing cats, a katzenjammer is a colloquial American English language term for a "hangover" borrowed from German, where it literally ways "cats' wailing." Katzen is the plural of Katze, which nosotros saw to a higher place, and jammer is "wailing, distress." The OED'southward outset cite is a doozy: It appears in the 1849 congressional record in reference to the backwash of a "drunken frolic." Katzenjammer went on to figure "low" or "uproar."

8. Tomcat

And speaking of tomcats ("male cat"), who or what is tom? Tom, here, is indeed a pet form Thomas, used a generic proper name for a man a la Jack, John Doe, or Tom, Dick, or Harry, hence tomboy and tomfool. Tom has been applied to other male animals historically, including tom-dog, tom-turkey, tom-parrot. Every bit the OED cites a 1905 London Daily Chronicle article: "In his part [Hampshire] people spoke of tom-rats, tom-rabbits, tom-mice, and tom-hedgehogs."

Tomcat overtook earlier names for he-cats like boar-true cat, ram-true cat, and gib-cat (from Gilbert) thank you in large function to the 1760, anonymously published "The Life and Adventures of a True cat," whose puss protagonist was named Tom, similar many other everyman figures earlier him.

9. Tabby

A tabby true cat is sometimes used for the female feline. This tabby ultimately refers to its colorful streaks and stripes, taken from an older name for a silk taffeta then patterned. Tabby, here, is from the French tabis, rendered from the Standard arabic ʿAttābīya, a district of Baghdad where the silk was made. The discussion's associations with female cats, though, is probably due to the utilise of Tabby as a crude proper name for an "erstwhile maid," shortened from Tabitha—itself from the Aramaic for "gazelle."

tabby-114782_1280 — Tabby cat got your tongue? (Pixabay).

10. Puss

Puss, as in Puss in Boots or pussycat, is an former conventional name for the house cat, dated as early as 1533. Information technology probably originates as an fake of a call made to attract a cat's attention (puss-puss-puss-puss), and like forms are plant in many other languages (cf. Dutch poes, Lithuanian puižė, Irish gaelic puisín). Its diminutive class, pussy, named a "sweet, affable girl" in the 16th century before devolving from in that location.