Etymologically
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catta

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈkat.ta][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈkat.ta][1]

Forms

catta f (genitive cattae); first declension[1] Also spelled ⟨gatta⟩ and ⟨cata⟩.[2][3][4]

Etymology

As the word for a she-cat it is from Latin cattus (“cat”), its feminine,[1][5][6][2] a word whose origin is unknown.[2] For the animal in Martial the OLD marks the origin as doubtful,[7] and Köbler, following Walde and Hofmann, calls it Pannonian.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is Martial: Umbria never gave us Pannonian cattae.[2][7][8][4] What animal he meant is unclear.[1][8] The OLD takes it as apparently an edible bird, and the TLL records that view, after Hehn;[7][2] Lewis & Short call it an unknown animal and note that an old gloss equates the word with Greek αἴλουρος (aílouros, “cat”);[8] Georges, Gaffiot and Etymonline take Martial's word for the cat.[5][6][9]

Semantic evolution

In Late Latin it is the cat.[2][1][10] The Vulgate's Book of Baruch says that owls, swallows and other birds fly over their bodies and heads, and cats likewise;[2][5][11] an Old Latin manuscript there has ⟨gattae⟩.[2] Rufinus' Clementine Recognitions say that some Egyptians worship the bull Apis, others the goat, others cats,[2][10] and Placitus' book of remedies has a chapter on the cat.[2][5] Etymonline notes that the word replaced fēlēs and was in general use on the continent by about 700.[9]

Medieval Latin kept it for the house cat:[3][12][13] John the Deacon's Life of Gregory the Great tells of one who owned nothing in the world but a cat, which he often stroked.[11] It was also the name of a movable shed used in sieges: Rahewin says that the people of Cremona sheltered in machines they called gattae, and the annals of Genoa record them too.[3][4] Catta marīna, the sea-cat, was a monkey.[3][4]

Timeline

  • 40–102/103 AD – Martial mentions Pannonian cattae.[2][7][4]
  • c. 345–411/412 AD – Rufinus writes of Egyptians who worship cats.[2][4]
  • 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it for cats in the Book of Baruch.[2][4]
  • first half of the 5th century AD – Placitus writes a chapter on the cat.[2][4]
  • 1158–1160 – Rahewin calls a siege shed a gatta.[3][4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An animal from Pannonia eaten as a delicacy, apparently a bird; an unknown animal (Martial).[7][2][8]
  2. (Late Latin) A cat, a she-cat.[5][6][10][2][1]
  3. (Medieval Latin) A movable shed protecting besiegers, a siege engine.[3][4]
  4. (Medieval Latin) catta marīna: a monkey.[3][4]

Usage notes

A grammarian, Virgilius, uses it for a female dog, which the TLL calls a foolish use.[2] In Neo-Latin catta was also the name of a silver coin.[14]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  6. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  7. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  10. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  11. ^ a b du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
  12. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  13. ^ Lexicon mediae et infimae Latinitatis Polonorum (1953–), Kraków: Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN; electronic ed. elexicon.scriptores.pl
  14. ^ Ramminger, Johann, Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700, www.neulatein.de