gato

Forms

gato m (plural gatos, feminine gata, feminine plural gatas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin cattus (“cat”), and has had the same form since the oldest texts, Old Galician-Portuguese gato.^[2][3][4][1] The Latin word meant first the wild cat and then the domestic one, and it replaced the older fēlēs, perhaps when the house cat reached Rome.^[2] It appears late in Latin, in Palladius, and Nascentes and Nunes derive the Portuguese word from a Latin variant gattus with ⟨g-⟩.^[5][6] Niermeyer lists the spellings ⟨gattus⟩ and ⟨gatus⟩ among the medieval spellings.^[7]

The same Latin word is Galician gato, Spanish gato, Catalan gat, French chat and Italian gatto.^[8][1][5] Corominas lists it among the Late Latin words of uncertain origin, the cat having been unknown as a house animal in Antiquity.^[9][10] Wiktionary considers a loan from a language of Africa or the Near East, comparing Arabic قِطّ (qiṭṭ, “cat”), and Corriente, Pereira and Vicente trace the Ibero-Romance words to Aramaic.^[1][11]

Bluteau (1712) reported two older guesses: a medieval Latin verb cattō (“to see”), for the cat's sharp sight, and cautus (“wary”).^[12] Vieira (1873) still derived it from catus (“sharp, clever”).^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Portuguese law of 1253, written in Latin, already uses the Romance noun: melior pellis de gato de casa “the best skin of a house cat” and pellis de gato montes “of a wild cat”.^[4] In Galician-Portuguese verse the Cantigas de Santa Maria have rosto de gata “a cat's face” and a man who feared do gato, que ena noite mellor ca no dia vee “the cat, which sees better at night than by day”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In the 13th and 14th centuries the word names the domestic and the wild cat: a tariff of 1255 taxes duzena de gatos “a dozen cats” (that is, their skins), and the chronicle of 1344 tells of a siege where the people ate os gatos et os rratos.^[4] The troubadours already used the phrase dar gat' a lebor “to give cat for hare”, to cheat someone, which Morais (1813) records as vender gato por lebre.^[14][15]

Tools and fittings that grip like claws took the name: Barbosa (1611) has gato de arcar cubas, the cooper's tool for hooping casks, and later dictionaries add the clamp that holds stones together and the wire that mends broken crockery.^[16][3][17] Morais also records the farrier's gato, excess flesh on a horse's neck, and gato pingado, the man who carried the coffins of the poor.^[15]

In Brazil the word has many informal senses: an attractive man, a nimble fellow, a pickpocket, a goalkeeper, and an illegal connection that steals electricity or cable television.^[2][18] In Portugal it is also an error, especially a misprint, and in the Alentejo a wineskin.^[2][19][1] The word passed into Kabuverdianu as gátu and into Kimbundu as ngatu.^[1]

Timeline

• 1253 – a Latin law sets the price of pellis de gato de casa and de gato montes.^[4]
• 1200s – the Cantigas de Santa Maria use gato and gata.^[4][3]
• 1344 – the chronicle of 1344 has comyã os gatos during a siege.^[4]
• 1300s – gata as the name of a siege engine.^[3]
• c. 1430 – gato in the Horto do Esposo.^[20]
• 1544 – a private letter spells it guato.^[21]
• 1500s – first records of engatar and engatinhar.^[3]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists the proverb gato escaldado da agoa fria ha medo and the cooper's gato de arcar cubas.^[16]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau discusses Latin catus and cattare as the source.^[12]
• 1813 – Morais records vender gato por lebre, fazer gato sapato and gato pingado; first record of gatilho.^[15][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. cat, the small domestic feline (Felis catus); feminine gata.^[2][1]
2. Any animal of the cat family, as the lion or the tiger.^[2][22]
3. An iron clamp or cramp that joins stones in masonry; a piece of wire or metal that holds broken crockery together.^[2][19]
4. A cooper's tool for straightening staves or hooping casks.^[2][3]
5. (nautical) A metal hook, usually with an eye, to which a rope or chain is made fast.^[2][19]
6. (farriery) Excess flesh on the upper part of a horse's neck.^[2][1]
7. (Portugal, informal) An error, especially a misprint or a word written for another.^[2][23]
8. (Brazil, Mozambique, informal) A very attractive young man.^[2][1]
9. (Brazil, informal) An illegal connection for stealing electricity, telephone or cable television.^[2][18]
10. (Brazil, informal) A petty thief, a pickpocket.^[2][1]
11. (Brazil, football) An agile goalkeeper.^[2]
12. (Portugal, regional) A skin used to carry wine; an iron stand for a roasting spit.^[2][1]

Adjective

1. (Brazil, informal, of a person) Good-looking.^[1]

Word family

• gata
• gatinho
• gatão
• gateiro
• gatil
• gatilho
• gatinhas
• engatinhar
• engatar
• engate
• desengatar
• gataria
• peixe-gato
• gato-sapato

Related words

• felino
• Latin cattus
• Spanish gato

Usage notes

Common phrases are gato escaldado, a person made wary by experience (from the proverb gato escaldado de água fria tem medo), vender gato por lebre, to cheat by passing off a worse thing as a better one, and fazer gato-sapato de alguém, to treat someone with contempt.^[2][16][15]

Houaiss also enters a fish name gato, a clipping of peixe-gato, for a grouper of the Atlantic (Epinephelus adscensionis).^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 r Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. gato
3. ^ a b c d e f g Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. gato
4. ^ a b c d e f g Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. gato
5. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. s.v. gato
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. gato
7. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. cattus
9. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 123
10. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. gato
11. ^ Corriente, Federico; Pereira, Christophe; Vicente, Ángeles (2019), Dictionnaire des emprunts ibéro-romans: emprunts à l'arabe et aux langues du monde islamique (Encyclopédie linguistique d'Al-Andalus 3), Berlin: De Gruyter, p. s.v. gat
12. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. gato
13. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 3, 843
14. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. gato
15. ^ a b c d Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 82
16. ^ a b c Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. gato
17. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. gato
18. ^ a b Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. gato
19. ^ a b c Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. gato
20. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. gato
21. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. gato
22. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. gato
23. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 4634