“Onomastics” refers to the intellectual endeavor of studying names of all kinds, including animal names. There are two specialized branches of Onomastics: Toponomastics (study of place-names) and Anthroponymy (study of personal names). Here is an attempt to explore a possible descriptive content of the name: “Cat”.
qăṭ (قط) is an ancient Arabic verb, it means: “to cut”.
[q] is the emphatic variant of: [k]
[ṭ] is the emphatic variant of [t].
kăt (كت) is the non-emphatic variant of qăṭ (قط).
kăt is a Semitic word, but ultimately Sumerian.
The etymon of (kăt) is the Sumerian: “kid” (to cut), (to break off).
Animal names are often a description of a distinctive feature of their physical appearance.
qiṭ (or qăṭu) is used as a name for the cat.
cat in Arabic is qiṭ (قط) or qăṭu (قطو).
It is interesting that Arabic has anther name the cat, which is: “băs/بس”
băs is an Arabic lexical word, it means “to break” or “to cut into pieces”.
băs is cognate with Akkadian “pāšu” (= axe).
English: Cat
“Cat” is almost a homophone of “Cut”.
“Cat” and “Cut” have the same phonetic root: [k-t].
In Middle English, the word: “kitten” means: “to cut“. In Modern English, this very word means: “young cat“!
Indo-Semitic hypothesis:
The Indo-Semitic hypothesis maintains that a genetic relationship exists between Indo-European and Semitic languages, and that the Indo-European and the Semitic language families both descend from a common root ancestral language. These language families, share many cognate words.
Examples:
German: “ton” (= clay) ↔ Proto-Semitic: *ṭīn (= clay).
Proto-Germanic: “auzon” (= ear) ↔ Hebrew: (auzin אֹזֶן = ear).
Latin: “sura” (= calf) ↔ Akkadian: “šūru” (= bull).
Proto-West Germanic: “*sparwō” (= sparrow) ↔ Aramaic: צִפְּרָא “ṣippərā” (= sparrow).
Greek: χρυσός “khrysó” (= gold) ↔ Akkadian: “khurāṣu” (= gold).
Thus: “cut” might be an “Indo-Semitic word”.
“Cut” etymology:
English: ‘Cut’ is “From Middle English cutten, kitten, kytten or ketten (to cut), (compare Scots kut, kit (to cut)). Of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse *kytja, *kutta, (to cut), of uncertain origin. Akin to Middle Swedish kotta (“to cut or carve with a knife”) (compare dialectal Swedish kåta, kuta (to cut or chip with a knife), Norwegian Bokmål kutte (to cut), Norwegian Nynorsk kutte (to cut), Icelandic kuta (to cut with a knife).” [01]
(Contributed article)
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