tabby

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   having a grey or brown streak or a pattern or a patchy coloring

   Tabby cats are quite common.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Tabby, recorded in the mid-16th century, originally denoted a striped silk fabric made in a district of Baghdad. The name for a tabby cat comes from the name of this fabric.

Mid 17th century French tabis, from Arabic عَتَّابِيّ (ʕattābiyy), ultimately from Arabic الْعَتَّابِيَّة (al-ʕattābiyya), a quarter of Baghdad (named for a Prince عَتَّاب (ʕattāb)) which is associated with the manufacture of a certain type of waved silk. See also taffeta, another type of silk whose name derives from the Persian تافته (tâfta, “woven cloth”) and shares a similar etymological origin.

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