Cat (pronounced kat)
(1) A
small domesticated carnivore, Felis domestica or F. catus, bred in a number of
varieties.
(2) Any
of several carnivores of the family Felidae, as the lion, tiger, leopard or
jaguar.
(3) A
woman given to spiteful or malicious gossip (archaic).
(4) In
historic Admiralty jargon, the truncated term for the cat-o'-nine-tails, a whip
used to administer corporal punishment on ships at sea.
(5) A
contraction of generalized use in words staring with cat (category, catboat, catamaran,
catfish, catapult, catalytic et al).
(6) In nautical
use, a tackle used in hoisting an anchor to the cathead.
(7) A double
tripod having six legs but resting on only three no matter how it is set down,
usually used before or over a fire.
(8) In medieval
warfare, a movable shelter for providing protection when approaching a
fortification.
(9) In
aviation, the acronym for clear-air-turbulence.
(10) In
medical diagnostics, the acronym for computerized axial tomography.
(11) In
computing, the acronym for computer-aided teaching and computer-assisted
trading
Circa
700: From the Middle English cat or catte and the Old English catt
(masculine) & catte
(feminine). It was cognate with the Old
Frisian and Middle Dutch katte, the Old
High German kazza, Old Norse köttr, Irish cat, Welsh cath (thought derived from the Slavic kotŭ), the Russian kot and the Lithuanian katė̃; the Old French chat enduring. The curious Late
Latin cattus or catta was first noted in the fourth century, presumably associated
with the arrival of domestic cats but of uncertain origin. The Old English catt appears derived from the earlier (circa 400-440) West Germanic
form which came from the Proto-Germanic kattuz
which evolved into the Germanic forms, the Old Frisian katte, the Old Norse köttr,
the Dutch kat, the Old High German kazza and the German Katze, the ultimate source being the Late
Latin cattus.
The prefix
meaning “down, against or back,” occurred originally in loanwords from the Greek
(cataclysm; catalog; catalepsy) and on the basis this model, was used in the formation
of other compound words such as catagenesis or cataphyll. The source was the Greek kata, a combining form of katá
(down, through, against, according to, towards, during). A most active prefix in the Ancient Greek, in
English it’s found mostly in Latin words borrowed after circa 1500. As applied, the meanings from the Greek attached
to the constructs: down (catabolism), away, off (catalectic), against
(category), according to (catholic) and thoroughly (catalogue). In Byzantine Greek, spelling was katta and by circa 700 the variations
were in universal European use, the Latin feles
almost wholly supplanted.
In the literature, a Latin root is cited because it’s documented but, linguists suggest ultimate source was probably Afro-Asiatic, noting the Nubian kadis, and Berber kadiska, both of which meant "cat" and the Arabic qitt (tomcat) may be from the same source. Despite that, in English, meaning extended to the big cats (lions, tigers etc) only after circa 1600. In the early thirteenth century, it was used as a term of disapprobation for women, used sometimes as a synonym for prostitute. In African-American use, it was a way of referring to one’s own or other cohorts while the application to jazz musicians or their audience emerged in the 1920s, both being adopted as part of the language of the counter-culture in the 1960s, the latter phase without the earlier racial specificity.
Phrases associated with the cat o’ nine tails
Cat got your tongue?: Said to refer to those about the be punished often being somewhat lost for words at the sight of the whip, some linguists point-out it wasn’t seen in print until the 1880s and suggest its most likely the invention of children.
Bell the cat: At sea, a bell would sound prior to floggings being administered. A more prosaic explanation is the practice of attaching collars with bells to domestic cats to (1) make them easier to find and (2) protect birds and other small creatures.
Let the cat out of the bag: To avoid the leather of the tails becoming brittle or stiff, when not in use, the cat was kept in a bag filled with sea-brine. It’s also suggested it’s a variation of “pig in a poke (bag)”; a way of cautioning folk not to buy animals in bags given worthless felines could be substituted for valuable piglets. Letting the cat out of the bag disclosed the trick.
Not enough room to swing a cat: The sailors’ informal term for decrying the small spaces below deck. This was long-thought to reference the dimensions required to use the cat as intended but some sources, noting the phrase pre-existed the Admiralty’s use, suggest, perhaps speculatively, it must refer to manhandled felines. In this case, the naval connection is preferred.
While the cat’s away, the mice will play: Nothing specifically naval, a general reference to cats and mice, the simile extending to what the untrustworthy get up to in the absence of figures of authority.
Rubbing salt into the wound: When the punishment was complete, the wounds were usually cleaned with especially salty brine or seawater, a basic and sometimes effective precaution against infection. The modern meaning of the phrase is derived from the additional pain caused rather than the primitive infection control and is thus a variation of “adding insult to injury” (or really, adding injury to injury), the notion of gratuitously or vindictively adding to existing pain.
Lindsay Lohan clad in cat theme for Halloween party at the Cuckoo Club, London, October 2015.
No comments:
Post a Comment