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.

Common collocations

• pet cat Adjective + noun
• keep a cat Verb + noun
• stray cat Adjective + noun
• stroke a cat Verb + noun
• domestic cat Adjective + noun

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…

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