Is a tom cat a type of cat?

What kind of cat is a tomcat?

A tomcat is a sexually mature male cat that has not been desexed and is prone to fighting over females and territory. Behavior A tomcat has a tendency to roam in search of female cats in heat.

Where did the word “Tomcat” come from?

The word “tomcat” originates from a book called “The Life and Adventures of a Cat” that was published in 1760. The book was very popular and had a promiscuous feline character called Tom the Cat who wooed many females.

What is a “tom” cat?

What is a “Tom” Cat? Unaltered male cats are commonly referred to as “Tom” cats. Intact male cats have a characteristic appearance, with a heavier, more muscular body, thick neck and the typical big, heavy tomcat head. This thickening of the face is commonly referred to as “stud jowls” or “shields.”

What is the origin of the Late Latin word’wildcat’?

The Late Latin word may be derived from another Afro-Asiatic or Nilo-Saharan language. The Nubian word kaddîska “wildcat” and Nobiin kadīs are possible sources or cognates. The Nubian word may be a loan from Arabic قَطّ‎ qaṭṭ ~ قِطّ qiṭṭ.

What is the origin of the Latin word cat?

The Late Latin word also is the source of Old Irish and Gaelic cat, Welsh kath, Breton kaz, Italian gatto, Spanish gato, French chat (12c.).

What is the origin of the Wildcat?

The European wildcat evolved during the Cromerian Stage about 866,000 to 478,000 years ago; its direct ancestor was Felis lunensis. The silvestris and lybica lineages probably diverged about 173,000 years ago.

Where did the term tomcat come from?

Arabic qitt “tomcat” may be from the same source. Cats were domestic in Egypt from c. 2000 B.C.E., but not a familiar household animal to classical Greeks and Romans. The nine lives have been proverbial at least since 1560s.

What is a wildcat?

Wildcats are feral carnivorous mammals that can be found scattered throughout forests in Africa, America, Asia and Europe. Due to the destruction to their habitat, this cat species is currently threatened, listed as a species in danger of extinction.

What is the origin of the term’raining cats and dogs’?

The term raining cats and dogs derives from Victorian times when street drainage was so poor that pets left on the streets would drown during rain storms.

What are the characteristics of a wild cat?

The predominant colour of wildcats is grey, with ochre or yellow tones, with tiger-like stripes. These are usually darker than the rest of the body, such as the belly, which has lighter shades of fur. Wildcat hair is thick and plentiful, and the tail is short and broad, with black rings along it.

What does the expression’cats and dogs’mean?

It purports ‘cats and dogs’ to be an intensifier and that the expression means ‘raining in a bad way’. In truth, what was in the mind of whoever coined this expression is now lost to us. I have to admit defeat and say that I don’t know the origin of this phrase.

Where does the phrase’raining cats and dogs’come from?

Another suggestion is that ‘raining cats and dogs’ comes from a version of the French word ‘catadoupe’, meaning waterfall. Again, no evidence. If the phrase were just ‘raining cats’, or even if there also existed a French word ‘dogadoupe’, we might be going somewhere with this one. As there isn’t, let’s pass this by.

Why are they called cats and dogs in the flood?

Dead cats and turnip-tops come tumbling down the flood. Another explanation is that ” cats and dogs ” may be a corruption of the Greek word Katadoupoi, referring to the waterfalls on the Nile, possibly through the old French word catadupe (‘ waterfall ‘). In old English, catadupe meant a cataract or waterfall.

What does ‘raining cats and dogs’ mean?

That got us thinking about another popular feline phrase, ‘it’s raining cats and dogs’. We all know the rough meaning of the phrase: namely, if it’s raining cats and dogs, it’s raining heavily, the heavens have opened, it’s torrential out there, and so on. But where does the expression ‘raining cats and dogs’ actually come from?

What are the differences between the different types of wild cats?

The wildcat shows a high degree of geographic variation. Whereas the Asiatic wildcat is spotted, the African wildcat is faintly striped, has short sandy-gray fur, banded legs, red-backed ears and a tapering tail. The European wildcat is striped, has long fur and a bushy tail with a rounded tip, and is larger than a domestic cat.

What are the characteristics of a wildcat?

Wildcats carry an elongated tail with a rounded tip and its characteristic ears are large and pointed. A wildcat’s body is muscular, robust, stylized and flexible.

What is the origin of the phrase’raining dogs and cats’?

It’s just a rather expressive phrase giving a graphic impression of heavy rain – as is ‘raining cats and dogs’. We do know that the phrase was in use in a modified form in 1653, when Richard Brome’s comedy The City Wit or The Woman Wears the Breeches referred to stormy weather with the line: “It shall raine… Dogs and Polecats”.

Why did Swift use the phrase’Rain Cats and dogs’?

The fact that Swift had alluded to the streets flowing with dead cats and dogs some years earlier and later used ‘rain cats and dogs’ explicitly seems to point to a picture, in his mind at least, of cats and dogs being carried along in a flood.

What is the origin of the expression raining cats and dogs?

The origin may also be in Norse mythology, where cats and dogs were sometimes associated with the spirit of the storm. raining cats and dogs, it’s. A heavy downpour. The origin of this expression, which has been around since at least 1700, has been lost.

Is it raining cats and dogs or is it raining rain?

That got us thinking about another popular feline phrase, ‘it’s raining cats and dogs’. We all know the rough meaning of the phrase: namely, if it’s raining cats and dogs, it’s raining heavily, the heavens have opened, it’s torrential out there, and so on.

How did the saying Raining Cats and dogs come about?

When it rained heavily, the water from the roof washed them off the eaves, and they came down with the torrent of water from the roofs of houses. As it appeared as though the cats and dogs had fallen with the rain, the term raining cats and dogs was born.

What does it mean when Swift says it rains cats and dogs?

Whether Swift coined ‘raining cats and dogs’ and whether he meant that to be a reference to the animals being washed through the streets in heavy weather is entirely speculative. The well-known antipathy between cats and dogs and their consequential fights has been suggested as a metaphor for stormy weather. That at least is a plausible theory.

Why do they say it’s raining cats and dogs?

They were the only place for the little animals to get warm. So all the pets; dogs, cats and other small animals, mice, rats, bugs, all lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery so sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Thus the saying, “it’s raining cats and dogs.”.

Did cats and dogs ever rain in the fleet?

So, it is plausible at least that dead cats and dogs may have been seen in rivers during rainstorms. However, such dead animals would have also been seen in dry weather so there’s no especial reason to connect the sight of dead animals in the Fleet with rain. Did domestic pets ever rain down?