Latin

fēlēs (cat)

Alternative forms

• faelēs, fēlis

Noun

fēlēs f ‎(genitive fēlis); third declension

1. cat
   • c. 45 BCE, Cicero, Tusculanes 5.27

     Quorum inbutae mentes pravitatis erroribus quamvis carnificinam prius subierint quam ibim aut aspidem aut faelem aut canem aut corcodillum violenti quorum etiamsi inprudentes quippiam fecerint, poenam nullam recusent.

     Their minds being tainted by pernicious opinions, they are ready to bear any torture rather than hurt an ibis, a snake, a cat, a dog, or a crocodile; and should any one inadvertently have hurt any of these animals, he will submit to any punishment.

   • 1528, Desiderius Erasmus, Adagiorum opus, p. 773:

     Ut feles quoties fugitat, male pedere sueta est.

     Whenever the cat runs away, she is accustomed to fart badly.

   • 1556, Conrad Gessner, Aeliani de natura animalium, Liber VI, Cap. XXVII, p. 336:

     Quemadmodum ex felibus mas est libidinosissimus, sic amantissima catulorum femina; quae veneream idcirco maris consuetudinem refugit, quod is calidissimum ignisque simile semen emittat, genitale ut feminae conburat.

     Just as out of the cats, the male is most libidinous, so too is the female of kittens most affectionate; and on that account she runs away from sexual intercourse with the male because he emits the hottest semen like fire, and so burns up the genital organ of the female.

   • 1607, Antoine Mizauld, Opusculorum pars secunda, p. 72v:

     Capitale fuisse apud Aegyptios felem sponte, vel casu occidisse, Diodorus perpulchram demonstrat historiam, suos oculos ac fidem in testimonium adducens, ne putetur esse fabula.

     Diodorus describes, bringing his eyes as well as his faith into the telling lest it be thought a fable, a very beautiful account that among the Egyptians it was punishable by death to deliberately or by accident kill a cat.

Inflection

Third declension i-stem.

Synonyms

• (a cat): cattus, mūriceps, mūrilegus, pilax

Derived terms

• fēlīneus
• fēlīnus
• fēliō

References

feles in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press

• feles in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “feles”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.

1. ↑ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill