You rarely see a person who does not know, a cat - who is this? After all, a fluffy and sometimes quite wayward animal lives in almost every house, pleasing the eye of all household members.
In addition, the entire Internet is full of images of both adult proud cats and small carefree and a little silly kittens. There are many groups and communities dedicated to these creatures. Tales and stories about them. For example, in the famous Soviet cartoon "Kitten Woof" in the title role "removed" cat.
But where did the word "cat" come from? If you do not know, but really want to understand the answer to this question, read the article. And then you will understand everything!
The origin of the word "cat"
The word "cat" itself was formed from the word "cat". It is not exactly proven, but it is generally accepted that the definition of a male feline came from the Latin language. In which there is a similar word cattus denoting this particular animal.
The Latin word appeared around the fifth century, and then, after many years, underwent changes. And shortened to cat. Perhaps you know it from an English lesson. After all, this is exactly what the British still call a furry pet.
In modern Russian, the word "cat" has passed from the old Russian dialect. Once upon a time, your great-great-grandfathers affectionately called the domesticated representative of the feline “cat”.
From him, words were formed that denoted cubs of the cat family, as well as the process of their birth. “Kittens”, “kitten”, “litter” are all derivatives of the word “cat”.
If you wish, you can easily pick up a synonym for the word "cat". For example, squirrel, kitty, cat, pussy and many others.
The word "cat" in the dictionary
According to Tatyana Fedorovna Efremova’s interpretation, a cat is a female cat who lives at home and catches mice and rats. And besides, it is also a device invented in order to first find, and then pick up something from the bottom of a river, lake, sea, etc.
Sergey Ivanovich Ozhegov suggests another meaning of the word “cat”. He claims that this animal is a representative of small-sized mammals of the “cat family”.
Natalya Yulievna Shvedova defines a cat as the skin or fur of this animal and any fur product. In addition, Shvedova also gives a definition similar to Ozhegov: a cat is a predatory mammal of the cat genus, which has many species: domestic, forest, steppe, reed, etc.
Meaning of the word “cat”
After reading several definitions of the word "cat", we can conclude that it has three meanings:
- animal, female;
- skin / fur, fur product;
- tool.
Since most often the chosen word is used to designate an animal, we will consider it in this meaning in more detail.
So, the cat family includes several types of cats. Here are a few of them:
- forest;
- steppe;
- reed;
- homework.
What does a cat look like?
In the modern world, there are more than forty species of wild cats. And home and even more! Feline mammals are traditionally divided into large and small representatives:
- Large ones are cheetahs, leopards, tigers, lynxes, panthers, etc.
- Small - forest, steppe, domestic and other cats.
Cats are four-legged, four-legged predators. They have big eyes and ears, standing straight. Also these animals have wide jaws and sharp teeth and a long tail. The named creatures are covered with wool, which varies in length. They can be smooth and fluffy.
The color is different, even red and fiery red are found. The size of the domestic cat is about 60 cm, weight - from four to 16 kg. Wild cats are bigger, and therefore much harder.
Types of cats
Forest cats are very similar to domestic cats, differing from them only in size. They live in dense, mountain forests, living in abandoned burrows of badgers or heron nests, can comfortably settle even in a hollow.
They hunt mainly at night, but shyness is not a character trait of this beast. He perfectly climbs trees and in case of danger can easily climb to a great height, thereby sheltering from his pursuers.
The steppe cat is one of the ancient inhabitants of the planet. Its size is smaller than that of the previous representative of the cat family, and the hair is shorter. He prefers to live on the territory of sandy and clay plains, not far from water sources.
He goes hunting at night and feeds on small rodents, and especially loves bird eggs. Also, the steppe cat will not miss the opportunity to eat and representatives of the aquatic fauna, which he can catch directly in the water due to the fact that he swims perfectly.
The reed cat, due to its color and characteristic tassels on the ears, also has a second name - bog lynx. Not particularly whimsical in terms of convenience, equips its rookery directly on the ground, covering the place of residence with shreds of its own wool and dried reed leaves.
A distinctive feature of cats of this species is the presence of large ears, in connection with which they have excellent hearing. This makes life much easier, since the bog lynx has much worse vision, unlike its other brethren.
The variety of domestic breeds of the described animal is simply colossal. Burmese, Siamese, Norwegian forest, Persian, Siberian, Turkish, Angora cats - this is not a complete list of cat breeds. There are also British, Sphinxes, Maine Coons and many others. And all of them are dearly beloved, the best, beautiful and funny full members of many families.
Why do people get cats
Cats are charming furry creatures, although they love to walk on their own. People love them, despite their wayward and proud disposition. They find abandoned, wet and dirty on the street and, without hesitation, drag them home, where they bathe, heat and fatten them.
Some cat lovers buy them outfits, the best food, equip their personal room and much more. In most families, there is only one cat in the house, but there are also cat lovers who give birth to five, ten and even more. Basically, elderly lonely people do this. It's just that cats, with all their neglect of the whole world, are still affectionate and capable of raising their master's mood with one short “meow”.
Morphology
Morphological analysis allows you to evaluate the features of a particular word, to determine its features in a specific sentence. We will analyze the word "cat":
- By asking a question to the selected word, you can determine which part of speech it refers to, in which case, number, form it stands. So who? Cat.
- So, before you is a noun in the nominative case, singular.
- Now answer: is it someone's name, nickname or the name of the city, street? If not, then the word “cat” is a common noun.
- Is it a living thing or thing? Judging by what has already been said, the word "cat", depending on the context, can be either animate or inanimate. Therefore, when determining this feature, pay attention to the meaning of the word in the sentence.
- In order to determine the gender, you must ask a question. Whose cat? She is mine! Consequently, the gender is female.
- The correctness of the determination of the following trait will be affected by your knowledge of the types of declination. This word refers to the singular feminine and ends with the letter "a". It turns out that “cat” is the noun of the first declension.
Phonetics
Sound-letter analysis of a word allows you to parse it into sounds and letters to see the difference in pronunciation and spelling of a given word. So, phonetic analysis of the word "cat":
- We determine the presence (how many of them all) of vowels in the word to divide it into syllables. Cats - 2 syllables. The stress falls on the letter “o”.
- Before analyzing the letters and sounds in a word, a transcription of the word “cat” must be presented. This is necessary in order to clearly understand how the word is pronounced. After all, vowel sounds without stress or paired consonants in some words can be very different from the letters that they are indicated on the letter. Or not be spoken at all. As, for example, occurs in the word "star". It will sound like [loud ']. That is, without the letter "d" in the middle of the word. Judging by the transcription of the word [cat], the pronunciation and spelling forms are identical.
Now describe the sounds in the word "cat":
- k - [k] - consonant, pronounced firmly and deafly, there is a paired sound [g];
- o - [o] - vowel sound, is written as it is heard, because it falls under stress;
- w - [w] - hissing consonant, pronounced firmly and deafly, there is a pair sound [w];
- k - [k] - consonant, pronounced firmly and deafly, there is a paired sound [g];
- a - [a] - a vowel sound, it is written in the same way as it is heard, because the sound "a" is not in doubt, even though the stress does not fall on it.
The word “cat” contains the same number of letters and sounds - 5.
Morphemic
Morphemic analysis will allow us to consider the composition of the word "cat".
Compound words have attached parts, roots, suffix parts, and endings. The selected word is simple, so its analysis will not cause difficulties and problems.
Morphemic parsing of the word:
- In order to find out whether there is a prefix in the word, as well as to determine the root, one should choose the same root words: cat - kitten, kitten, cat.
- The prefix is missing.
- The root is kosh.
- The case declension will help to identify the ending: cat, cat, cat, cat, cat, about a cat. The ending "a".
- According to the rule, the part remaining between the root and the ending is a suffix. In this word, this is the letter "k".
Well, now you know where the word “cat” came from, what it means and how it understands.