rat

Signification (Anglais)

Noun

1. A medium-sized rodent belonging to the genus Rattus.
2. (informal) Any of the numerous members of several rodent families (e.g. voles and mice) that resemble true rats in appearance, usually having a pointy snout, a long, bare tail, and body length greater than about 12 cm, or 5 inches.
3. (informal) A person who is known for betrayal; a scoundrel; a quisling.
4. (informal) An informant or snitch.
5. (informal) A scab: a worker who acts against trade union policies.
6. (slang) A person who routinely spends time at a particular location.
7. A wad of shed hair used as part of a hairstyle.
8. A roll of material used to puff out the hair, which is turned over it.
9. (slang) Vagina.
10. (informal) Short for muskrat.

Verb

1. To hunt or kill rats.
2. To betray a political party, cause or principle; to betray someone, to desert a person or thing.
3. (informal) To work as a scab, going against trade union policies.
4. To backcomb (hair).
5. To inform on someone; to betray someone to the police or authorities.

Verb

1. To scratch or score.
2. (obsolete) To tear, rip, rend.
3. Damn, drat, blast; used in oaths.

Concepts

rat

souris

rat gris

rat noir

surmulot

raton

rat d'égout

cafter

rate

canaille

gredin

salaud

mouchard

dénoncer

charbon symptomatique

moucharder

rat d’égout

jaune

viande

herbe

livrer

informateur

traître

miette

mouffette

briseur de grève

Prononcé comme (IPA)

/ɹæt/

Étymologie (Anglais)

From Middle English ratte, rat, rotte, from Old English rætt, from Proto-West Germanic *ratt, from Proto-Germanic *rattaz, *rattō (compare West Frisian rôt, Dutch rat), of uncertain origin, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *reh₁d- (“to scrape, scratch, gnaw”). However, the rat may have been unknown in Northern Europe in antiquity, and the Proto-Germanic word may have referred to a different animal; see *rattaz for more. Attestation of this family of words begins in the 12th century.
Some of the Germanic cognates show considerable consonant variation, e.g. Middle Low German ratte, radde; Middle High German rate, ratte, ratze. The irregularity may be symptomatic of a late dispersal of the word, although Kroonen accounts for it with a Proto-Germanic stem *raþō nom., *ruttaz gen., showing both ablaut and a Kluge's law alternation, with the variation arising from varying remodellings in the descendants. Kroonen states that this requires a Proto-Indo-European etymon in final *t and is incompatible with the usual derivation from Proto-Indo-European *reh₁d- (“to scrape, scratch, gnaw”).