# mačka/macska/etc. ("cat")



## Gavril

Hello,

The word for "cat" is *macska *in Hungarian and *mačka* in Slovenian, BCS and Macedonian. Based on a quick scan of the neighboring languages (including Turkish), I haven't been able to find any other cognate terms yet, but I notice that some distant Turkic languages have similar-sounding words for "cat": e.g., Uzbek *mushuk*.

Is this term for "cat" thought to come from a Turkic source, or are there other theories as to its origin?

Thanks for any info


----------



## jazyk

According to this Hungarian etymological dictionary, the word macska is of Slavic descent and is found in several Slavic languages, including one you didn't mention - Slovak. The word should go back to the sound used to summon cats or made by said felines.


----------



## Gavril

jazyk said:


> According to this Hungarian etymological dictionary, the word macska is of Slavic descent and is found in several Slavic languages, including one you didn't mention - Slovak. The word should go back to the sound used to summon cats or made by said felines.



Thanks for pointing me to that dictionary, Jazyk. What do you mean by "should", though, when you write "*should* go back to the sound used to summon cats ..."? I don't speak Hungarian and the Google Translate version of the dictionary's article on _macska_ is a little bit difficult to interpret.


----------



## jazyk

It means _probably_. It is the same _should_ as in _She should be home by now_.


----------



## shawnee

How does the Turkish _kedi_ fit this theory?


----------



## ancalimon

shawnee said:


> How does the Turkish _kedi_ fit this theory?



pisik : cat   :  mushuk

We also call cats by saying pisi pisi.

I think it's something universal from baby language.

Or maybe it is related with "büzük" one of its meanings being "crumpled", "wrinkled". But I don't know if crumpled cats lived among lands of Turks. Unless they shaved them. (it is also a certain hole on a human. (the skin shrivels to form a hole on human. That's where this word comes from. The verb "büzüşmek") But that seems unrelated).


----------



## mataripis

Pisi?  is this word related to Pussy ? I am sure it very close to Tagalog "Pusa"(cat) and Bahasa "Pur".  How "macska" is pronounced?  Machska? I think the sound of the cat was the origin of its name in any language.


----------



## sotos

I wonder also how  _Machska _is pronounced. There is an albanian-greek name _mexi _which may originate from this word. 
The _Pisi-Pisi _for calling the cats is  also used in Greek as _Psi-Psi  _but doesn't seem to be the "sound of a cat". Does it?


----------



## kirahvi

If by machska you refer to the Hungarian _macska_, it's pronounced appr. "machka", with "ch" like in "church". The vowel is pretty far back.


----------



## Gavril

jazyk said:


> The word should go back to the sound used to summon cats or made by said felines.



One other thing: if the -*ka* in _mačka_ is a diminutive suffix, would the stem of the word (i.e., the part that originally imitated a cat's meowing or people calling cats) have been *mač*-/*mak*-, *ma*- or something else?

Perhaps this isn't an easy question to answer, but I thought it was worth asking.


----------



## jazyk

The -ka is not always a diminutive, as a suffix it can also be feminine, but it could be neither in this case. I don't know more than this.


----------



## vianie

*Mačka* actually *is* a diminutive, derived from *maca*. Here is the source of this claim. But sorry, I am not very able in English and I do not want to waste my time with the translation of that.


----------



## iobyo

Gavril said:


> One other thing: if the -*ka* in _mačka_ is a diminutive suffix, would the stem of the word (i.e., the part that originally imitated a cat's meowing or people calling cats) have been *mač*-/*mak*-, *ma*- or something else?
> 
> Perhaps this isn't an easy question to answer, but I thought it was worth asking.



I think jazyk meant that it comes from *macь + -ьka (yielding *mačьka through assibilation before a front vowel) where *macь is how you call cats (still the case in Macedonian; _мац-мац_). This is sort of analogous with _птичка _< _птиц(а)_ + _-ка_.



vianie said:


> *Mačka* actually *is* a diminutive, derived from *maca*. Here is the source of this claim. But sorry, I am not very able in English and I do not want to waste my time with the translation of that.



In Macedonian, _Маца _is a calling name for cats.


----------



## Srbenda

The "cat" has also Slavic origin. In some of Slavic languages the cat is spoken as "kot" or "kotka". Kot means the animal birth, and kotka means the animal that often birthes the cobs. So we can see that the English cat was taken from some Slavic lang.. Probably from Serbian. And, anyone who learns deeper the words ethymology can see that English perfectly saves ancient Serbian or Slavic words.


----------



## danielstan

ancalimon said:


> pisik : cat   :  mushuk
> 
> We also call cats by saying pisi pisi.
> 
> I think it's something universal from baby language.



What a surprise!
In Romanian the most common word for cat is '_pisică_' and the interjection we are using to call a cat is _pis-pis_ (usually 2 times '_pis_', rarely 1 time of '_pis_').
The surprise is that Romanian etymological dictionary does not relate _pisică _to Turkish _pisik_, but to the interjection _pis _which is not related to any other language:
dexonline

Second term used in Romanian for cat is '_mâță_' which is cognate with Albanian _micë_, according to the etymological dictionary entry:
dexonline

Pronunciation: '_mâță_' [m*ɨ*tsə]  ('ă' is the Romanian termination for feminine nouns)
Albanian: _micë _[m*i*tsə]


----------



## Sardokan1.0

danielstan said:


> In Romanian the most common nouns for cat is '_pisică_'



In southern Sardinian language the word for cat is _"pisittu"_, very similar to Romanian '_pisică_'. We also use the onomatopoeia _"ps-ps"_ to call a cat. 
While in northern Sardinian the word for cat is the more common _"Cattu, Gattu, Battu". _A curious thing however is that in the central and northern areas of Sardinia we use as nickname for cats the word _"Mussittu"_ (often abbreviated in _Mussi_); Mussittu is the diminutive of the Latin "Mus - Muris" (mouse), and we also use the onomatopoeia _"mus-mus"_ to call a cat, (along with _"ps-ps"_).

P.S.
In some areas of south Sardinia they say "Macittu" (which sounds like a diminutive of ???), it could be a variant of "Mussittu". Also "Pisittu" , it sounds like a diminutive, but of what?, in southern Sardinian there is the word "Pisu" (pea), but it makes no sense to call a cat like a pea.


----------



## Olaszinhok

Srbenda said:


> So we can see that the English cat was taken from some Slavic lang..



I don't think so, English cat is generally thought to be from Late Latin _cattus.




Sardokan1.0 said:



			In some areas of south Sardinia they say "Macittu" (which sounds like a diminutive of ???), it could be a variant of "Mussittu". .
		
Click to expand...

_
It sounds very similar to the Italian _micio, micino, micetto_. As for its etymology, you can read the following:

Etimologia : micio, micia;


----------



## djara

Throughout North Africa, in the Berber/Amazigh language, the most widely used word for cat is 'mucc" pronounced /mush/ which is probably from the Latin Mus.
Also, in Tunisia we use 'bis-bis' to call cats.


----------

