feline

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin fēlīnus (“of or belonging to a cat”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} which Etymonline and Barnhart call Late Latin,^[5][6] formed from fēlēs (“cat”) (genitive fēlis) with the suffix -īnus.^[7][2][3] The American Heritage Dictionary also allows Late Latin fēlīneus as a source.^[8] The Latin noun meant a cat, a wild cat or a marten,^[5][6] or more generally a small beast of prey,^[9] and its origin is uncertain.^[5][6] De Vaan finds a connection with Welsh bele (“marten”) possible but unproven, and gives the word no etymology.^[9] The zoological genus name New Latin Felis comes from the same Latin noun.^[5] The noun feline, a cat or an animal of the cat family, is the adjective used as a noun.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of cats or their species; cat-like in form or structure: 1681, in Nehemiah Grew's Musæum Regalis Societatis, a catalogue of the Royal Society's collections.^[2][6][5] Johnson (1755) quoted the same passage, where an animal's tail is called feline, for "like a cat; pertaining to a cat".^[10]

Semantic evolution

The word began as a term of natural history, for what belongs to cats.^[2][10] From 1843, in Bulwer-Lytton's The Last of the Barons, it was used of anything resembling a cat in character or manner,^[2][11] and so of people who are graceful, stealthy or sly.^[7][12] Weekley notes the phrase feline amenities, for veiled spite between women, used by Du Maurier in Punch.^[13] The noun, an animal of the cat tribe, is recorded from 1855,^[2] or from 1861 according to Etymonline, which adds that it is popularly used of the domestic cat;^[5] the Shorter Oxford calls this use chiefly jocular.^[11]

Timeline

• 1681 – of cats or their species, cat-like in form.^[2][6]
• 1843 – resembling a cat in character or manner.^[2]
• 1855 – noun, an animal of the cat family.^[2] Etymonline dates the noun to 1861.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or belonging to the cat family, the Felidae, which includes lions, tigers and domestic cats.^[8][12][7]
2. Like a cat, especially in grace, suppleness or stealth: She crossed the room with feline ease.^[8][12][7]
3. Sly or treacherous, in the manner attributed to cats.^[7]

Noun

1. An animal of the cat family; a felid, or simply a cat.^{[8][12][7][11]}

Word family

• felinely
• felinity
• felineness
• unfeline
• feline distemper

Related words

• felid
• felis

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray