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CAT,[1] properly the name of the well-known domesticated feline animal
usually termed by naturalists _Felis domestica_, but in a wider sense
employed to denote all the more typical members of the family _Felidae_.
According to the _New English Dictionary_, although the origin of the
word "cat" is unknown, yet the name is found in various languages as far
back as they can be traced. In old Western Germanic it occurs, for
instance, so early as from A.D. 400 to 450; in old High German it is
_chazza_ or _catero_, and in Middle German _kattaro_. Both in Gaelic and
in old French it is _cat_, although sometimes taking the form of
_chater_ in the latter; the Gaelic designation of the European wild cat
being _cat fiadhaich_. In Welsh and Cornish the name is _cath_. If
Martial's _cattae_ refer to this animal, the earliest Latin use of the
name dates from the 1st century of our era. In the work of Palladius on
agriculture, dating from about the year A.D. 350, reference is made to
an animal called _catus_ or _cattus_, as being useful in granaries for
catching mice. This usage, coupled with the existence of a distinct term
in Gaelic for the wild species, leaves little doubt that the word "cat"
properly denotes only the domesticated species. This is confirmed by the
employment in Byzantine Greek of the term [Greek: k'attos] or [Greek:
k'atta] to designate domesticated cats brought from Egypt. It should be
added that the [Greek: a'ilouros] of the Greeks, frequently translated
by the older writers as "cat," really refers to the marten-cat, which
appears to have been partially domesticated by the ancients and employed
for mousing.

As regards the origin of the domesticated cats of western Europe, it is
well known that the ancient Egyptians were in the habit of domesticating
(at least in some degree) the Egyptian race of the African wild cat
(_Felis ocreata maniculata_), and also of embalming its remains, of
which vast numbers have been found in tombs at Beni Hasan and elsewhere
in Egypt. These Egyptian cats are generally believed by naturalists to
have had a large share in the parentage of the European breeds, which
have, however, in many cases been crossed to a greater or less extent
with the European wild cat (_F. catus_).

One of the features by which the Egyptian differs from the European wild
cat is the longer and less bushy tail; and it has been very generally
considered that the same feature is characteristic