Where does “cat” come from?

cat (English) comes from Middle English catte, from Old English catte, from Germanic *kattǭ, from Germanic *kattuz, from Latin cattus, from Latin catta — a cat.

cat (English): An animal of the family Felidae; A person; A...

Definitions

  1. An animal of the family Felidae; A person; A...

Ancestry of “cat”, step by step

cat traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.

via Middle English catte

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle Englishcatte—
2Old Englishcattea female cat
3Germanic*kattǭ—
4Germanic*kattuz—
5Latincattusa cat
6Latincattaa cat

via Middle English cat

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle Englishcatcat (feline)
2Old Englishcattcat
3Proto-West Germanic*kattucat

Words derived from “cat”

Every word from Latin catta →Every word from Latin cattus →Every word from Germanic *kattuz →