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cat

noun
/ˈkat/UK/ˈkæt/US/ˈkʰeə̯t//kæt/

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *kattuz Proto-West Germanic *kattu Old English catt Middle English cat English cat From Middle English cat, catte, from Old English catt (“male cat”), catte (“female cat”), from Proto-West Germanic *kattu, from Proto-Germanic *kattuz, generally thought to be from Late Latin cattus (“domestic cat”) (c. 350, Palladius), from Latin catta (c. 75 A.D., Martial), possibly from an Afroasiatic language. Doublet of gato. This would roughly match how domestic cats themselves spread, as genetic studies suggest they began to spread out of the Near East / Fertile Crescent during the Neolithic (being in Cyprus by 9500 years ago, and Greece and Italy by 2500 years ago), especially after they became popular in Egypt. However, every proposed source word has presented problems. Adolphe Pictet and many subsequent sources refer to Barabra (Nubian) [script needed] (kaddîska) and "Nouba" (Nobiin) ⲕⲁⲇⲓ̄ⲥ (kadīs, “kadīs”) as possible sources or cognates, but M. Lionel Bender says the Nubian word is a loan from Arabic قِطَّة (qiṭṭa). Ibn Duraid dismissed Arabic قِطَّة (qiṭṭa) as non-Arabic in origin, whereas the more "proper" term in Arabic is the now-rare Arabic سِنَّوْر (sinnawr). Jean-Paul Savignac suggests the Latin word is from an Egyptian precursor of Coptic ϣⲁⲩ (šau, “tomcat”) suffixed with feminine -t, but John Huehnergard says "the source … was clearly not Egyptian itself, where no analogous form is attested." It may be a wanderword. Kroonen says the word must have existed in Germanic from a very early date, as it shows morphological alternations, and suggests that it might have been borrowed from Uralic, compare Northern Sami gađfe (“female stoat”) and Hungarian hölgy (“stoat; lady, bride”) from Proto-Uralic *käďwä (“female (of a fur animal)”). Cognates Related to Scots cat (“cat”), North Frisian kaat, kaot, Kat, kåt (“cat”), Saterland Frisian Kat (“cat”), West Frisian kat (“cat”), Alemannic German Chats, Chatz, chatza, chatzu, chatzò, chàzzà, Kàtz (“cat”), Bavarian ckozza, Katz, khoze, kòtze (“cat”), Cimbrian katze, khatz, khatza (“cat”), Dutch kat (“cat”), German Katze (“cat”), German Low German Katt (“cat”), Luxembourgish Kaz (“cat”), Mòcheno kòtz (“cat”), Yiddish קאַץ (kats, “cat”), Danish kat (“cat”), Faroese køttur (“cat”), Icelandic köttur (“cat”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish katt (“cat”), Latin cattus, catus (“cat”), Aromanian cãtush (“cat”), French chat (“cat”), Occitan, Norman cat (“cat”), Portuguese, Spanish gato (“cat”), Breton kaz, kazh (“cat”), Cornish cath, kath (“cat”), Irish cat, cut (“cat”), Scottish Gaelic cat (“cat”), Welsh cath (“cat”), as well as Ancient Greek κάτα (káta), κάττα (kátta, “cat”), Greek γάτα (gáta, “cat”), Turkish kedi (“cat”), and from the same ultimate source Belarusian, Russian кот (kot, “cat”), Ukrainian кіт (kit, “cat”), Polish kot (“cat”), Kashubian kòt (“cat”), Latvian kaķis (“cat”), Lithuanian katė (“cat”), and more distantly Armenian կատու (katu, “cat”), Basque katu (“cat”), Georgian კატა (ḳaṭa, “cat”), Classical Syriac ܩܛܐ, ܩܛܘ (“cat”), Arabic قِطَّة (qiṭṭa, “cat”) alongside dialectal Maghrebi Arabic قَطُّوس (qaṭṭūs, “cat”) (from Berber, probably from Latin).

  1. derived from catta
  2. derived from cattus
  3. inherited from *kattuz✻
  4. inherited from *kattu✻
  5. inherited from catt
  6. inherited from cat

Definitions

  1. Terms relating to animals.

    • Mammals need two genes to make the taste receptor for sugar. Studies in various cats (tigers, cheetahs and domestic cats) showed that one of these genes has mutated and no longer works.

  2. Terms relating to people.

    • But, ere one rapid moon its tale has told, / He finds his prize — a cat — a slut — a scold.

  3. Terms relating to things.

  4. ›+ 43 more definitions

    1. To hoist (an anchor) by its ring so that it hangs at the cathead.

      • The anchors were catted at the bows of the yacht […]

    2. To flog with a cat-o'-nine-tails.

    3. To vomit.

      • ‘He's going to cat, Maxim,’ said the Pussum warningly. The suave young Russian rose and took Halliday by the arm, leading him away.

    4. To go wandering at night.

      • "He doesn't realize that I know," Lord Callan said, "but it's been pretty obvious that most of his catting about London's darker alleys has been a search for his origins.
      • This was going to be my first try at catting out. I went looking for somebody to cat with me.
      • My own dear wife could have tended to his needs if she hadn't been out catting.

    5. To gossip in a catty manner.

      • Men from young to middleaged, with matt faces, vivacious and brightly dressed, catted together in gay groups.
      • They smiled, touched, rolled their eyes and raised their eyebrows, as they relived the audition and catted about some of their competition.

    6. A program and command in Unix that reads one or more files and directs their content to…

      A program and command in Unix that reads one or more files and directs their content to the standard output.

    7. To apply the cat command to (one or more files).

    8. To dump large amounts of data on (an unprepared target), usually with no intention of…

      To dump large amounts of data on (an unprepared target), usually with no intention of browsing it carefully.

    9. A street name of the drug methcathinone.

    10. Abbreviation of catapult.

      • a carrier's bow cats

    11. Abbreviation of catalytic converter.

    12. Abbreviation of catamaran.

      • These cats are a lot of fun in the harbor, but they're a real thrill on the open ocean riding ground swells.

    13. Abbreviation of category.

    14. Abbreviation of catfish.

      • She missed the fish diet of her own country, and twice every summer she sent the boys to the river, twenty miles to the southward, to fish for channel cat.
      • Fishing for cat is probably, up to a certain stage, the least exciting of all similar sports.

    15. Abbreviation of caterpillar.

    16. Abbreviation of computed axial tomography

      Abbreviation of computed axial tomography; often used attributively, as in “CAT scan” or “CT scan”.

    17. Catastrophic

      Catastrophic; terrible, disastrous.

      • The weather was cat, so they returned home early.

    18. A diminutive of the female given names Catherine or Caitlin.

    19. A piece of heavy machinery, such as a backhoe or bulldozer, of the Caterpillar brand.…

      A piece of heavy machinery, such as a backhoe or bulldozer, of the Caterpillar brand. (Occasionally, loosely, any big yellow machine of the type.)

      • Upon touring the mine, they found it to be a veritable canyon with some monstrous Cats trundling in the background.

    20. A Catalina flying boat.

    21. Acronym of Central Atlas Tamazight.

    22. Acronym of computer-adaptive test.

    23. Acronym of common admission test.

    24. Acronym of civil air transport.

    25. Acronym of clear-air turbulence.

    26. Acronym of computed axial tomography.

    27. Acronym of career aptitude test.

    28. Acronym of computer-assisted/aided translation.

    29. Acronym of credit authorization terminal.

    30. Acronym of citizenship advancement training.

    31. Acronym of computer-aided transceiver.

    32. Acronym of cosmic anisotropy telescope.

    33. Acronym of coital alignment technique.

    34. Acronym of conidial anastomosis tube.

    35. Acronym of chloramphenicol acetyltransferase.

    36. Acronym of crisis assessment team.

    37. Acronym of Consumer Acceptance of Technology.

    38. Centre for Alternative Technology

    39. Counter Assault Team

    40. Citizens Area Transit

    41. Canadian Achievement Tests

    42. Cambridge Antibody Technology

    43. Abbreviation of Caterpillar Inc..

      • Caterpillar (CAT)and Boston Consulting Group said their top executives would go but the companies are monitoring the situation closely.

The neighborhood

Derived

a cat can look at a king, a cat in gloves catches no mice, a cat in hell's chance, a cat may look at a king, all cats are grey by night, all cats are grey in the dark, alley cat, anticat, Arnold's cat map, ball-tailed cat, barn cat, bearcat, bear cat, bell the cat, big cat, black cat, blue cat, cabbit, cactus cat, care killed a cat, care killed the cat, cat activation noise, cataholic, cat and dog, cat and dog life, cat and kitten sneaking, cat-and-mouse, cat and mouse, cat around, catbath, cat bear, catbird, cat-bird, cat bird, cat-block, catblogging, cat box, catboy, cat-burglar, cat burglar · +358 more

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for cat. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA