THE ETYMOLOGY NERD
  • Home
  • ALGOSPEAK
  • Infographics
    • Interactive Map
  • EVENTS
  • MORE
    • Shop
    • Media/publicity

CATS AND KITTENS

12/3/2020

0 Comments

 
I was recently asked why cat is spelled with a c and kitten is spelled with a k. I immediately assumed that cat was Italic and kitten was Germanic, as we would commonly see with these c/k pairs. However, this appears to be a rare exception! Cat comes from Old English catt, which is thought to be from the Proto-Germanic root kattuz, with the same meaning. Kitten, meanwhile, was borrowed in the late fourteenth century from Old French chitoun, a diminutive of chat, their word for "cat". Both chat and kattuz derive from the Latin word cattus, and the best I can guess for the spelling shifts is that cat was changed to look more like the original Latin while kitten was influenced by all the other English words starting with k. Finally, the etymology of cattus is unknown, but similar words crop up from Proto-Uralic to Afro-Asiatic because the animal was traded a lot, so it's muddled and hard to find out more.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    AUTHOR

    Picture
    Hello! I'm Adam Aleksic. You're looking at a super outdated page

    Archives

    December 2023
    May 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016

    TAGS

    All
    Interview
    Satire

Picture
CONTACT: [email protected]
SUBSTACK • TIKTOK • INSTAGRAM • YOUTUBE
I do not have a facebook account that's an impostor
  • Home
  • ALGOSPEAK
  • Infographics
    • Interactive Map
  • EVENTS
  • MORE
    • Shop
    • Media/publicity