feles

Concepts

cat

😺

pussy

😺

female cat

cat

😺

Synonyms

felis

cattus

😺

giat

Translations

Katze

😺

kedi

😺

chat

😺

kat

😺

gat

😺

gato

😺

gato

😺

gatto

😺

γάτα

poes

γάτος

gatta

👸

قط

huiskat

😺

Pronounced as (IPA)

[ˈfeː.ɫeːs]

Etymology

Unknown; maybe cognate with Welsh bele (“marten”).
Other sources say that it is related to Latin fulica, fulix, with the etymological meaning of "animal with a shiny coat", but this theory is doubtful. The connection with Latin fēlix (“happy”) and Latin fēllō (“to suck”), with the (hypothetical) etymological meaning of “animal that sucks the blood [of its prey]”, was also proposed. This word could be cognate with Latin mēlēs (“badger”), under the assumption of a very unusual alternation of /f/ (or earlier */β/) and /m/, which might be an indication of substrate origin.