cat

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A small furry animal with whiskers and a tail, often kept as a pet.

   The cat curled up and slept on the sofa.

2. 2
   noun

   Any of the larger wild animals in the cat family, such as lions and tigers.

   Big cats like tigers and leopards are powerful hunters.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Cat descends from Latin cattus, which appeared in the early centuries AD and became the source of corresponding words across much of Europe. Its deeper origin is uncertain: an Egyptian source was once widely proposed, but a Slavic origin is another possibility.

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. 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…

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary