English → Latin
“cat” in Latin
The English word cat itself goes back to Latin catta, through cattus.
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
cat
felis, feles. Tom-cat, *felis mas. Cat-like, *feli similis: adv., *more felis. To live like cot and dog, perpetuis inter se jurgiis certare: *tanta est alicui cum aliquo discordia, quanta canibus felibusque sortito obtigit (after Hor.., lupis et agnis quanta sortito obtigit. Tecum mihi discordia est).
Three-footed support, tripus, ödis.
Cat-o’-nine-tails, flagrum: flagellum (whip of single thongs; when furnished with iron spikes, Scorpio, Isid., Orig., 5, 27. Scutica was of thongs woven together). To flog with a cat-o’-nine-tails, flagris or flagellis caedere: to death, aliquem flagellis ad mortem caedere (Hor., Sat., 1, 2, 12).
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for cat?
- The usual Latin words for “cat” are fēlēs, tripūs, ōdē. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.