cat

Etymology 1

From Middle English cat, catte, from Old English catt (“male cat”), catte (“female cat”), from Proto-West Germanic *kattu, from Proto-Germanic *kattuz. Further etymology and cognates. The Germanic word is generally thought to be from Late Latin cattus (“domestic cat”) (c. 350, Palladius), from Latin catta (c. 75 A.D., Martial), 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 (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) kadīs as possible sources or cognates, but M. Lionel Bender says the Nubian word is a loan from Arabic قِطَّة (qiṭṭa). 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 Wanderwort. 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)”). Related to Scots cat, West Frisian kat, North Frisian kåt and kaat, Dutch kat, Danish kat, Norwegian katt, Swedish katt, German Low German Katt and Katte, German Katze, Alemannic German Chatz, Icelandic köttur, Afrikaans kat, Latin cattus, French chat, Norman cat, Occitan cat, Portuguese gato, Spanish gato, Aromanian cãtush, Scottish Gaelic cat, Irish cat, Breton kazh, Welsh cath, Cornish kath, as well as Ancient Greek κάττα (kátta), Greek γάτα (gáta), and from the same ultimate source Russian кот (kot), Ukrainian кіт (kit), Belarusian кот (kot), Polish kot, Kashubian kòt, Lithuanian katė, and more distantly Armenian կատու (katu), Basque katu, Hebrew חתול (khatúl), Arabic قِطَّة (qiṭṭa) alongside dialectal Maghrebi Arabic قَطُّوس (qaṭṭūs) (from Berber, probably from Latin).

noun

1. An animal of the family Felidae:
   1. A domesticated species (Felis catus) of feline animal, commonly kept as a house pet.
   2. Any similar animal of the family Felidae, which includes lions, tigers, bobcats, leopards, cougars, cheetahs, caracals, lynxes, and other such non-domesticated species.
      I grabbed it and ran over to the lion from behind, the cat still chewing thoughtfully on Silent's arm. 1977, Peter Hathaway Capstick, Death in the Long Grass: A Big Game Hunter's Adventures in the African Bush, St. Martin's Press, page 44
      If you should someday round a corner on the hiking trail and come face to face with a mountain lion, you would probably never forget the mighty cat. 1985 January, George Laycock, “Our American Lion”, in Boys' Life, Boy Scouts of America, section 28
      She felt privileged to be here, living the experience inside the majestic cat [i.e. a tiger]; privileged to be part of their bond, even for only a few hours. 2014, Dale Mayer, Rare Find. A Psychic Visions Novel, Valley Publishing
2. (uncountable) The meat of this animal, eaten as food.
   “[…]—Say, do you mind telling me if people around here really eat cats?” He felt a shiver in the pit of his stomach. “Do they eat cat?” said the little old man, profoundly shocked. 1948, Harry Stephen Keeler, The Case of the Jeweled Ragpicker (The Screwball Circus Mysteries; 3), Wildside Press, published 2017
   You do not eat cat simply for the thrill of eating cat. You eat cat because cats have a lively jingshen, or spirit, and thus by eating the animal you will improve your spirits. 2013, Peter Hessler, Strange Stones: Dispatches from East and West, Harper Perennial
   I ate at a Chinese restaurant once, even though my friends told me I would probably be eating cat and dog disguised as chicken. 2013, James Bartleman, The Redemption of Oscar Wolf, Dundurn
3. A person:
   1. (offensive) A spiteful or angry woman.
      But, ere one rapid moon its tale has told, / He finds his prize — a cat — a slut — a scold. 1835 September, anonymous author, “The Pigs”, in The New-England Magazine, Vol. 9, 156
   2. An enthusiast or player of jazz.
      I turn on the radio / There's some cat on the saxophone / Laying down a litany of excuses 2008, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (lyrics and music), “Hold on to Yourself”
   3. (slang) A person (usually male).
      Didn't know what time it was the lights were low / I leaned back on my radio / Some cat was layin' down some rock'n'roll 'lotta soul, he said 1972, “Starman”, in The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, performed by David Bowie
      1973 December, "Books Noted", discussing A Dialogue (by James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni), in Black World, Johnson Publishing Company, 77. BALDWIN: That's what we were talking about before. And by the way, you did not have to tell me that you think your father is a groovy cat; I knew that.
      What fags are true I know what Mack's might do I'm quite familiar with cats like you Provoke to get me give me a good reason to smoke me Try to break me but never wrote me) 1998, “Fiend”, in Respect, performed by Shaquille O'Neal
      I am sick of rappers claiming they hot when they really not I am sick of rappers bragging about shit they ain’t really got These cats stay rapping about cars they don’t own I am sick of rappers bragging about models they don’t bone.[…] And I am sick of all these cats with no talent That never lived in the hood but yet their lyrics be so violent. 2006, “Sick of it all”, in Masta Ace (lyrics), Pariah
   4. (slang) A prostitute.
      "Tell me. Willie said there was a cat in love with you. That isn't true, is it?" "Yes. It's true," Hudson corrects her, letting her think that by "cat" he means prostitute. 1999, Carl P. Eby, Hemingway's Fetishism. Psychoanalysis and the Mirror of Manhood, State University of New York Press, page 124
4. (nautical) A strong tackle used to hoist an anchor to the cathead of a ship.
   Overhaul down & hook the cat, haul taut. Walk away the cat. When up, pass the cat head stopper. Hook the fish in & fish the anchor. 2009, Olof A. Eriksen, Constitution - All Sails Up and Flying, Outskirts Press, page 134
5. (chiefly nautical) Short for cat-o'-nine-tails.
   […]he whipped a black man for disobedience of his orders fifty lashes; and again whipped him with a cat, which he wound with wire, about the same number of stripes;[…]he used this cat on one other man, and then destroyed the cat wound with wire. 1839, Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, testimony by Henry L. Pinckney (Assembly No. 335), page 44
6. (archaic) A sturdy merchant sailing vessel (now only in "catboat").
7. (archaic, uncountable) The game of trap ball.
   1. (archaic, countable) The trap in that game.
8. (archaic) The pointed piece of wood that is struck in the game of tipcat.
9. (slang, vulgar, African-American Vernacular) A vagina, a vulva; the female external genitalia.
   "What the hell, so this broad's got a prematurely-gray cat." 1969, Iceberg Slim, Pimp: The Story of My Life, Holloway House Publishing
   As she came up, she tried to put her cat in his face for some licking. 2005, Carolyn Chambers Sanders, Sins & Secrets, Hachette Digital
   I had a notion to walk over to her, rip her apron off, sling her housecoat open and put my finger inside her cat to see if she was wet or freshly fucked because the dream I had earlier was beginning to really annoy me. 2007, Franklin White, Money for Good, Simon and Schuster, page 64
10. A double tripod (for holding a plate, etc.) with six feet, of which three rest on the ground, in whatever position it is placed.
11. (historical) A wheeled shelter, used in the Middle Ages as a siege weapon to allow assailants to approach enemy defences.
    From behind the narrow slits in the walls of Castellar, crossbowmen and archers took aim at the juddering cat as it came closer. 2000, Stephen O'Shea, The Perfect Heresy, Profile Books, page 97

verb

1. (nautical, transitive) To hoist (the anchor) by its ring so that it hangs at the cathead.
   The anchors were catted at the bows of the yacht … 1922, Francis Lynde, Pirates' Hope, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, page 226
2. (nautical, transitive) To flog with a cat-o'-nine-tails.
3. (slang) To vomit.
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. 1998, Mary Spencer, Lady's Wager, page 324
   This was going to be my first try at catting out. I went looking for somebody to cat with me. 2010, Claude Brown, Manchild in the Promised Land, page 18
   My own dear wife could have tended to his needs if she hadn't been out catting. 2012, Valerie Hansen, Wages of Sin
5. To gossip in a catty manner.
   Men from young to middleaged, with matt faces, vivacious and brightly dressed, catted together in gay groups. 1932, Hugh Brooke, Man Made Angry, page 134
   They smiled, touched, rolled their eyes and raised their eyebrows, as they relived the audition and catted about some of their competition. 1996, Alistair Boyle, The Unlucky Seven
   In the story, Lady Ina gossiped and catted about a parade of the rich and famous—Jackie Kennedy looking like an exaggerated version of herself, Princess Margaret so boring she made people fall asleep, Gloria Vanderbilt so ditzy she didn't recognize her first husband. 2016, Melanie Benjamin, The Swans of Fifth Avenue, page 293

Etymology 2

From concatenate, derived from the program's function of concatenating files. Compare concat.

noun

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

verb

1. (computing, transitive) To apply the cat command to (one or more files).
2. (computing, slang) To dump large amounts of data on (an unprepared target), usually with no intention of browsing it carefully.

Etymology 3

Abbreviations.

noun

1. (slang) A street name of the drug methcathinone.
2. Abbreviation of catapult.
   a carrier's bow cats
3. Abbreviation of catalytic converter.
4. Abbreviation of catamaran.
5. Abbreviation of category.
6. 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. 1913, Willa Cather, chapter 2, in O Pioneers!
   Fishing for cat is probably, up to a certain stage, the least exciting of all similar sports. 1916, M. Shults, “Fishing for Yellow Cat in the Brazos”, in Field and Stream, vol. 21, 478
7. Abbreviation of caterpillar.
   1. (slang) Any of a variety of earth-moving machines. (from their manufacturer Caterpillar Inc.)
   2. A ground vehicle which uses caterpillar tracks, especially tractors, trucks, minibuses, and snow groomers.
8. Abbreviation of computed axial tomography. Often used attributively, as in “CAT scan” or “CT scan”.

adj

1. (Ireland, colloquial) Catastrophic; terrible, disastrous.
   The weather was cat, so they returned home early.