catt

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *kattuz. Cognate with Old Saxon katto, Old Norse kǫttr (Swedish katt), Old High German kazzo. The word existed in the Germanic languages in a female gender also, represented in Old English by catte. The word appears to be related to Late Latin cattus as well as to similar words in the Slavic and Celtic languages, but the ultimate source is uncertain. See cat for more.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɑtt/, [kɑt]

Noun

catt m

1. cat

Declension

Declension of catt (strong a-stem)

Case	Singular	Plural
nominative	catt	cattas
accusative	catt	cattas
genitive	cattes	catta
dative	catte	cattum

Descendants

• Middle English: cat
  • English: cat
  • Scots: cat

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Old Irish

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin cattus, from Latin catta, possibly from Afroasiatic, but see cat for more.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kat/

Noun

catt m (genitive caitt)

1. cat
   • c. 900, Sanas Cormaic, from the Yellow Book of Lecan, Corm. Y 10

     catt ab eo quod est cattus

Inflection

Masculine o-stem
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative
Vocative
Accusative
Genitive
Dative
Initial mutations of a following adjective: H = triggers aspiration L = triggers lenition N = triggers nasalization

Derived terms

• caittín
• catán

Descendants

• Irish: cat
• Manx: kayt
• Scottish Gaelic: cat

Mutation

Old Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Nasalization
catt	chatt	catt pronounced with /ɡ(ʲ)-/
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

References

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “catt”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language