catamountain
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Late Middle English catamountain,[1] from Middle English cat of the mountain (“leopard, panther”).[2]
Pronunciation
[edit]- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /kætəˈmaʊntɪn/, /-t(ə)n/
- (General American) IPA(key): /kætəˈmaʊnt(ə)n/, [-ɾə-]
- Hyphenation: cat‧a‧mount‧ain
Noun
[edit]catamountain (plural catamountains)
- (also attributively) A leopard, a panther (Panthera pardus); also, an ocelot (Leopardus pardalis).
- (leopard, panther): Synonym: catamount
- 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 16, column 1:
- Goe, charge my Goblins that they grinde their ioynts / With dry Convultions, ſhorten vp their ſinewes / With aged Cramps, & more pinch-ſpotted make them, / Than Pard, or Cat o' Mountaine.
- (by extension) A man living in the mountains.
Alternative forms
[edit]Translations
[edit]ocelot — see ocelot
man living in the mountains
References
[edit]- ^ “catamount, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
- ^ “cat of the mountain, n.” under “cat, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007; “catamountain | cat o’ mountain, n.”, in OED Online
, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1889.
