categise

English

Etymology 1

First attested around the turn of the sixteenth century. The origin is uncertain; derivation is perhaps from the Ancient Greek καταιγίζω (kataigízō, “I rush down like a storm”), from καταιγίς (kataigís, “a storm descending from above”, figuratively “battle”).

Alternative forms

• categize

Verb

categise (third-person singular simple present categises, present participle categising, simple past and past participle categised)

1. (rare) Thrash (verbally or physically).
   • 1580–1615, an unknown source, quoted in: Henk Gras, All Semblative a Woman’s Part? (1991), page 241:

     Conceale your qualitie till we be private; if your parts be worthie of me, I will countenance you, if not, categize you.

   • 1962, The Philosopher, XIII, page 49:

     Thus he categised the churches of his day as “The mills of Satan”, where men “in his synagogues worship Satan under the unalterable name”.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:categise.

Etymology 2

See catechism.

Noun

categise (uncountable)

1. (archaic, rare) Pronunciation spelling of catechism.
   • 1821, D.P. Campbell, Harley Radington, I, ch. xxii, p. 225:

     “Oh, sir, I’ll answer ten thousand, gin ye like till ask them, as carefully and pointedly as if I wir saying my categise.”