June 2. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



429 



NAMES OF CAT AND DOG. 



(VoLx., p.507.) 



Tour correspondent is of opinion "that the dog 

 is indigenous in all countries; hut the cat," though 

 now found in almost all countries, " is of foreign 

 origin," and " that Persia is the original habitat of 

 the cat, where that animal exists in its most per- 

 fect state." Also, "that it was introduced into 

 Europe from Spain," and " domesticated there 

 pi'ior to the seventh century." It is incidentally 

 added, that "the Persian language dates its origin 

 from the Arabic invasion in the seventh century." 



The reasons for these opinions are assigned as 

 follows : 



1. " The name of dog varies in every language." 

 Does it so ? 



Thfi dog in Sanscrit is cva7i. 



„ Greek, kvu>v. 



„ Latin, catiis. 



„ Italian, caiie. 



„ French, chien, dogiie. 



„. Portuguese, cao. 



„, German, hund, dogge. (!S[.B, K and H are 

 convertible sounds.) 



„ Dutcll, hond, dog. 



„ English, hound, dog. 



„ Swedish,, hund, dogg. 



„ Danish, hu7id. 



„ Irish and Gaelic, cu. 



,f. Welsh and Bireton ci (hard c), plural own. 



„ Russian, cobdka, in which remains the ele- 

 mental CO, and the b, equivalent to v or u. 



„ Icelandic, hun and doggun. 



2. " The name of cat is identical in almost all 

 known languages." Is it so ? 



The cat in biblical Hebrew does not occur ; but 

 in rabbiiiical Hebrew it is 7inn, khatul, And N"l315i', 

 shwiara. 



In Arabic j^, hirr, and * , siiiawtoar, closely 



connected with the second rabbinical name^ and 

 also signifying the tail. 



In Persian, dl,.' >, gurbaJi. ( j ->, gurhur, sig- 

 nifies deceitful.) 



In Greek Homeric and poetic, yaXi-i). 

 In Greek Aristotelian^ dhovpos. 

 In classical Latin, _/e/is. 

 In low Latin, catus. 



3. " The only language in which the name of 

 cat is significant is the Zend." Is it so ? 



In the first place, what is the iLame of cat in 

 Zend ? Your correspondent does not teU us. In 

 the next place the rabbinic ?inn is significant, 

 having for its root pnn, to hide or deceive, and the 

 word L'ii>., hhatul, is applied to the wolf in Ara- 

 bic, because, as Freytag explains it, ex occulta 

 <:aptat prcedam. 



AiXovpos is derived from al6Wfiv^=Kive7v, tV ofjpuv, 

 a motion peculiarly distinctive of the feline race. 



Catus, again, which is probably the root of the 

 word used in those nations in which the domestic 

 cat was later known (although the wild cat seema 

 always to have been common in Northern Europe), 

 Is evidently a significant application of the Latin 

 adjective. 



4. " The word gatu in Zend signifies a place." 

 Bopp had doubtless good authority (vol.i. p. 111.) 



for stating, that gntu signifies a place ; but the next, 

 link in the chain, the Zend word for cat, is forgot- 

 ten by your correspondent. 



To derive words from languages, not cognate, 

 and of distant countries, unless the intermediate 

 traces are plain, is a very fallacious use of etymo- 

 logy. 



Thus some of the Greek fathers derived Traerxa 

 from Trao-xw ; and Plutarch, in his Symposium^ re- 

 presents the Jews as worshippers of Adonis, from 

 a misconception of the meaning which they at- 

 tached to Adcomi ; though in this case, as the ori- 

 ginal meaning, of both words ivas the same, the 

 error was more excusable., 



5. " The word gato, in Spanish,, signifies a cat.'" 

 It does' so, but so does gatto in Italian, and both 

 come from catus, as golpe from colaphus, and se»- 

 gundo from secundus. As to the connexion be- 

 tween Spain and Persia, where Zend was a living 

 language, (if it had been possible) that connexion 

 would only have affected the lost aboriginal lan- 

 guages of the Peninsula. In Basque the name for 

 cat is not known to me. 



The Castilian is a mixture of Gothic aaid Latin, 

 and it has evidently derived the. word in question 

 from the latter language. 



6. " The attachment of the. cat is to places, and 

 not to persons." 



The cat is rather a persecuted animal, but, 

 when treated kindly, it is capable of great per- 

 sonal attachment. On the other hand, if in want 

 of food, it is often known to leave its customary 

 residence and become wild, when in the neigh- 

 bourhood of woods and rabbit-warrens. 



The cunning natural to all the feline race, and. 

 that peculiar motion of the tail, sometimes denot- 

 ing anger, and sometimes pleasure, are quite aa- 

 marked distinctions in this animal as the love of, 

 place. I may remark that the name for cat in the 

 Javanese and Malay (as I have heard from our 

 best Malayan scholar) is also significant, being 

 derived from the sound miau. The Javanese 

 word is meyang. 



7. " The Persian dates its origin from the Ara- 

 bic invasion." 



This does not accord with the opinions of the 

 most eminent philologists. The Zend had been a 

 dead, or merely sacred, language long before our 

 era. The Pehlvi, whence modern Persian is partly 

 derived^ took its place ; and the modern Persian, 



