Etymologically
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gatto

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Pronunciation

Forms

gatto m (plural gatti, feminine gatta, diminutive gattìno, augmentative gattóne, pejorative gattàccio or gattonàccio, derogatory gattùccio)[1] Old Italian also wrote gacto and gato.[2] The older catto survives at Velletri and Castel Madama in Lazio.[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin cattus, with its feminine catta and the manuscript variants gattus and gatta.[5][6][7][1] The Late Latin word, first in Palladius in the 4th century, replaced classical Latin fēlēs, probably when the domestic cat reached Rome; in Palladius it may still have meant the wildcat or the polecat.[5][3] The initial /g/ is a Tuscan voicing of /k/ before /a/, as in gabbia; forms with /k/ are typical of Gallo-Romance and rare in Italy.[8][9][3] The word is panromance except Romanian: French chat, Occitan gat, Catalan gat, Spanish gato, Portuguese gato and Sardinian battu.[6][10][3]

The origin of the Latin word is obscure.[5][11] Since the domestic cat came from North Africa, Nocentini and DEI compare words of Nubian and of Berber (kaddiska) as possible sources, perhaps reaching Latin through Egypt.[6][12] Trumper tried to connect it with Latin catus (“sharp”) and catulus (“whelp”), which may at least have influenced its form.[6] Meyer-Lübke and Walde thought it Celtic, a view Körting rejected and the LEI calls problematic, while Corominas thought of a call to the animal.[10][13][3] From Latin the word spread to Old Irish catt, Welsh cath, Old English catte, Old High German kazza and Lithuanian katė.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Genoese verse of the Contrasto of Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, about 1190;[2][6][5] DELI cites the 13th-century Detto del gatto lupesco.[2][6][5] In early texts the feminine gatta was preferred when the sex did not matter, as it was in Latin.[5]

Semantic evolution

The first sure record of a house cat in Latin is in John the Deacon's life of Gregory the Great, whose only possession was a she-cat he kept in his lap.[3] Already in Latin the name was given to a siege engine: Vegetius says the barbarians called cattae what the ancients called vineae.[5] Italian gatto had this sense before 1292 in Bono Giamboni, and later meant the top of a galley mast (1528, Paolo Giovio) and a pile driver (1798).[5] DEI notes old figurative senses such as “peasant”, “sly person”, “womanizer” and “thief”, of which the last ones survive.[12] In the dialects the word names caterpillars and the catkins of willow and hazel.[10]

Phrases with the animal grew up early: gatta ci cova (1523–24, Firenzuola), una gatta da pelare (1557, Annibal Caro), gattamorta.[5] Gattomammone, a fairy-tale monster, contains mammone “monkey”, from Arabic maimūn.[5] In the 20th century English gave gatto selvaggio, a wildcat strike (American English since 1943), and gatto delle nevi, a snowcat.[5][14] The adjective gattopardesco (1963) comes from Tomasi di Lampedusa's novel Il Gattopardo.[5][6]

Timeline

  • c. 1190 – Raimbaut de Vaqueiras has the first record.[2]
  • Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses gatto for a siege engine.[5]
  • Late 13th century – The Novellino uses gatta.[5]
  • Before 1400 – Franco Sacchetti uses gattaiola, the cat flap.[5]
  • 1523–1524 – Firenzuola writes gatta ci cova.[5]
  • 1528 – Paolo Giovio uses gatto for the top of a galley mast.[5]
  • 1798 – D'Alberti records the sense “pile driver”.[5]
  • 1963 – Gattopardesco is recorded.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. cat, the domestic feline; also a male cat, a tomcat (feminine gatta): Il gatto dorme sul divano tutto il giorno.[7][11][1]
  2. (zoology) Any of various small wild felines: gatto selvatico, the wildcat.[7][11][15]
  3. (history, military) A medieval siege engine like a battering ram, with a roof.[7][11][16]
  4. (nautical, historical) The top of a galley mast.[16][4]
  5. (uncommon) A pile driver.[7][16][8]
  6. Gatto delle nevi: a tracked vehicle for grooming ski runs, a snowcat.[16]
  7. Gatto selvatico: an offshore drilling platform, sciopero a gatto selvaggio, a wildcat strike.[16][4]

Word family

  • gatta
  • gattino
  • gattaiola
  • sgattaiolare
  • gattamorta
  • gattoni
  • gattonare
  • gatteggiare
  • gatteggiamento
  • gattomammone
  • gattopardo
  • gattopardesco
  • gattuccio
  • Latin cattus
  • French chat
  • English cat

Usage notes

Set phrases: essere quattro gatti (to be very few), essere come cane e gatto (to be always quarrelling), gatto a nove code (cat-o'-nine-tails), and the proverb quando il gatto non c'è i topi ballano.[11][15][16] Pesce gatto is the catfish.[8][15]

A minor homograph is gatto, an old armed barge, a Venetian vessel of a hundred oars, and in the 19th century a Baltic merchant ship;[12] DEI compares Medieval Latin catta (1175), Old French chat and English cat (1509) for such ships, and calls the relation between them uncertain.[12]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  3. ^ a b c d e f Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 13, 76
  4. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  8. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  10. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  11. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  12. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1772
  13. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  14. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 6, 612
  15. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  16. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli